While she was busily eating corn soup with a spoon and dipping bread, Jackal carried an armful of firewood and threw it into the fireplace, then sat in front of it, silently poking the fire.
Asha cautiously spoke to him.
“But Captain… the horse you keep.”
Jackal suddenly flinched.
“…Why that horse?”
“It’s just, we were together last night, but when I woke up, I couldn’t see it… Where is it now? Can I see it in the stable?”
Even though it was midwinter, Jackal felt a cold sweat on his back.
“No. That guy is now…”
He narrowed his brow, thinking for a moment, then answered.
“…Gone for a stroll.”
“A stroll?”
Asha blinked at the unexpected response.
“…Yes. It’s a wandering horse. It has a wandering habit, so it occasionally goes out on its own and returns.”
“Really? So it goes for a stroll and returns home by itself?”
“Yes. Horses generally have a strong homing instinct. Especially that one, it’s much smarter than the average horse, so it quickly recognizes and returns to its master.”
As Asha genuinely admired, Jackal felt somewhat embarrassed for unintentionally boasting in a strange direction.
A wandering horse indeed.
It was nonsense, but Asha nodded seriously.
Perhaps the horse came to this room last night to ask permission for a stroll.
To Asha, the horse already felt like a person.
Jackal sighed inwardly, twisting his lips at her naïveté.
Asha asked with a curious face.
“Can I know the child’s name then?”
Calling him a ‘child,’ Jackal coughed awkwardly and said,
“Call it whatever. It doesn’t have a name.”
“Really? It doesn’t have a name? Even so, you should’ve given a name to your beloved horse.”
Asha raised an eyebrow, probing, and Jackal felt more embarrassed as if he was being scolded for neglecting himself.
“Fine then, you name it.”
Asha asked, surprised.
“Me? Can I?”
“Yes. It will understand whatever you call it, but having a name might please it…”
Jackal trailed off.
In truth, when she had first asked him his name in the snowfield, he had felt a slight thrill.
It was exciting and unfamiliar that someone was curious about his name after a long time.
The name ‘Jackal’ had truly become an old one, for there was hardly ever a reason for him to be called by that name again.
Asha said with a happy face,
“Then I’ll name it! I hope the horse comes back soon.”
Looking at Asha, who he sincerely liked, Jackal slyly asked,
“Do you like that name so much?”
“Of course! It’s the horse that saved me.”
Jackal openly chuckled and said,
“It’s not the horse, but me who saved you.”
“Oh…… I know that the Captain sent the horse to me. I will never forget that.”
Asha answered awkwardly.
Jackal’s shoulders rose in pride, but he was taken aback by what followed.
“But the horse seems to love and serve its master, while the master doesn’t seem to care?”
As Asha glanced sideways, Jackal responded in surprise,
“Who says I don’t care? I cherish it so much.”
Asha asked with a skeptical face,
“……Really?”
“Yes. That’s why I washed it myself yesterday.”
“Oh.”
Asha nodded, recalling that the horse’s mane had been wet yesterday.
Somehow, she thought she smelled soap on the horse’s body.
“So when will it come back?”
“……Well. I brushed it and groomed it last night, so it may be wandering around the mountains, looking for a mare.”
Asha laughed cheerfully at his words.
The sight of her was so naive and pure that Jackal’s expression also softened.
“It will surely find a beautiful mare. Because it’s handsome.”
Suddenly her words came in and struck his heart, and Jackal blinked his eyes.
He didn’t know why his face kept flushing.
But then, Asha suddenly spoke seriously,
“Captain, I have a request.”
Jackal tensed up momentarily.
She might want the wild horse for herself.
Having it as her own horse had a significant meaning in his tribe.
“What is it?”
Jackal prepared himself and waited for her words.
Soon Asha opened her mouth with determination,
“Teach me how to ride a horse.”
At her unexpected request, Jackal blinked his eyes once.
Asha spoke with a bit of embarrassment,
“Before regression, the Emperor wouldn’t even let me near horses, so I never rode one……. Riding your horse was my first time.”
Jackal looked at her without speaking.
So that’s why she was so thrilled when she saw the horse for the first time.
Somehow, when he carried her on his back, she didn’t balance but hung on awkwardly, and it wasn’t because her body was frozen; she simply didn’t know how to ride.
Asha glanced at him, checking his reaction, and asked,
“Is it a difficult request?”
“……No. Just a bit surprised. Basically, there’s no one in the Likaion tribe who can’t ride.”
At that, Asha’s face turned even redder.
Jackal asked,
“So you ran away on foot when you fled the Imperial Palace?”
“Yes…….”
His eyes widened slightly.
“You thought to escape without even a horse? From that tyrant?”
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
