About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

No, don't think about the past.

--------

At the end of the incident, Orson was fined by the Queen Mother for using the curtain call without permission and was forced to write a 5000-word self-criticism.

W ran away bravely, SCOUT pretended to be sick but failed, and his collection of Doppler knives (brand new from the factory) was confiscated as punishment.

congratulations.

11. Uma Musume

"This way, Orson!"

"Wait a minute—wooooo!"

In the Kingdom of Knights, on the streets of the beautiful and passionate city-state of Casimir, a girl with golden hair as dazzling as the sun was pulling a black-haired boy through the alleys at an extremely fast speed.

"At least slow down a little... Ha, ha—"

The black-haired boy, Orson, whose race was Chimera, was gasping for breath. He begged the girl running in front of him to slow down a little so that he could adjust his breathing. However, the blonde girl had no intention of slowing down at all.

"We have to throw those guys off our trail, Orson!"

The blonde girl responded loudly, glancing back at Orson. The girl's eyes, like her long golden hair, were as dazzling as the sun, flashing with a light that could not be ignored.

The girl had a youthful face, easily recognizing her age. However, her expression was resolute, like a "knight" deeply loved in Casimir, who had weathered setbacks but remained resilient.

The girl's name is "Maria Linguang". She is indeed a knight, and a knight of the prestigious "Linguang" family.

"Are those pursuers... really that scary?"

Orson was out of breath. Although his physical strength had been specially trained since he was in the North, and was already at a terrifying level for a normal person, facing Maria, the Kuranta, the physical fitness of this little Chimera was still far from enough.

"Of course! You don't know the current situation in Casimir! Today's Casimir is even bloodier than the previous knight competition. Although I'm very happy that you can come here to see me, in a sense, this is a particularly serious time...!"

Maria spoke to Orson with a serious expression. Judging from the serious look on the girl's face, every word she said was true.

"—I think I understand. I don't know what the situation is here, but I will do my best to protect you, Maria."

Orson nodded seriously and said that Maria thought she had come at the wrong time, but Orson thought it was just the opposite. If Maria fell into some dangerous situation, he would be able to help her at this moment in Casimir.

"Ugh...! Um, thank you so much, but the crisis I mentioned isn't what you think—"

Maria's fair cheeks turned red instantly when she heard Orson's words without any hesitation. She shook her head to cool down the body and tried to explain in a tone that was a little embarrassed and a little happy.

"Not what I thought? Uh...what's going on?"

Orson was completely confused now. He had obtained permission from Amiya and Tallulah to take a forced leave, so he had no tasks to deal with during this period. Just after receiving the message from Maria and the others, he came to Casimir, which he had not seen for a long time.

After arriving at Casimir, Orson first found Maria at the Linguang Mansion. Maria was wearing a sports suit and sweating profusely. Even her dazzling, fluffy and smooth blonde hair was stuck together by sweat, and her chest was heaving violently with her breathing.

From the outside, Maria seemed to have just finished training, but she was not wearing armor, and what she held in her hand was not an apprentice knight sword, but a stopwatch.

"Ah, Orson! Why are you here--uh...! Well, well, let me go change my clothes first!"

Maria smiled happily upon seeing Orson, but then realized that she looked a little 'disheveled' and immediately hid at the back of the room.

After changing into a light and simple white hoodie, Maria walked out while wiping the ends of her hair with a towel.

"Is there something at the factory that needs to be dealt with?"

"There's no problem at the factory. Actually, I came here purely for, uh, tourism?"

Orson told Maria about his situation. When Maria heard that Orson did not have any work at the moment and was just out to "relax", she suddenly looked up and began to think about something.

"Hmm... so, Orson, you can stay with Casimir for the time being, and there won't be any other distractions?"

"Yes."

"Great! In that case, quickly hand over the contract...where are the paper and pen?"

After receiving Orson's affirmative answer, Maria cheered and then immediately looked around, not knowing what she was looking for.

"Here, here~ Then Orson, let's hurry... huh?!"

After a few minutes, Maria had a pen and a folder in her hands, but just as she walked to Orson, the cell phone in Maria's pocket suddenly rang.

Orson didn't know what was in the phone. He only knew that Maria's expression instantly became nervous after she saw the phone screen.

"Oh no—let's go, Orson!"

Before Orson could ask Maria what was going on, he was forcibly taken away by the young knight by the arm and ran wildly through the streets and alleys of Casimir.

"What's going on, Maria?"

Being dragged along at full speed for a long time due to a disagreement would make even Orson have some complaints, not to mention Maria's strange appearance, which made Orson increasingly suspicious about what the "emergency" she mentioned was.

The most important point is that Orson's physical strength is really reaching its limit. After all, he usually relies on the power of rest to "throw" for long-distance exercise. If he continues like this, he will probably be carried on Maria's back. No matter how you think about it, such a scene is too chivalrous... No, it's too lame.

"I'll explain later... This place should be fine, let's do it, Orson!"

Maria responded embarrassedly, then she noticed a deserted family restaurant on the side of the road and immediately dragged Orson in.

"Anyway, just sign this document first. I'll tell you the rest later—two glasses of 'Iron Ball Run Special Drinks'."

Maria casually ordered two drinks to send the waiter away, then immediately took out the folder from her pocket, placed it on the table and handed it to Orson.

"Signing a document? What is this—[Regarding the training for the first Pretty Derby competition…]"

"Wooooooaaa! Don't look yet! Orson, just sign here!"

Maria screamed and rushed over, waving her hands wildly to try to prevent Orson from reading the handwriting on the paper, leaving only the signature field at the bottom blank.

“Maria—”

Faced with Maria's abnormal behavior, Orson looked up at the girl. Maria, who had never been scheming and not good at hiding things, suddenly became a little flustered, and even sweat broke out on her forehead.

"Well, that... I, uh, how should I put it..."

Maria stammered as she tried to say something, but her expression was like the one she would have when the teacher called on her to answer a question in history class.

"Haa ...

Looking at Maria's panicked expression, Orson finally sighed and picked up the pen to sign.

As a companion who had experienced the transformation of the Casimir Chamber of Commerce and participated in the knight competition together, Orson knew very well that the girl had the blood of noble Pegasus flowing in her eyes and soul. Her every word and action was to become a "true knight", and she did it, so she would not do anything to harm herself.

"Well... Thank you so much, Orson. Although someone is indeed chasing us, it's not what you think..."

Maria was a little surprised for a moment. She probably didn't expect that Orson would trust her so much and sign his name without questioning her series of strange behaviors.

"I'm glad you're safe. Do you want to sign here?"

"Yeah! Just sign your name here, [Orson]!"

Maria's face turned red again at Orson's unconsciously handsome remarks, but she immediately changed her attitude and excitedly gestured to Orson to just sign here.

Orson flicked the pen lightly, then placed the tip of the pen over the signature area and twisted his wrist—

"Give me a moment!"

boom!

The door was pushed open roughly, and at the same time an arrow shot in from outside the door, aiming directly at the pen in Orson's hand.

"Pooh!"

The arrow first knocked the pen out of Orson's hand, then changed its angle and pierced directly into Maria's forehead.

No, a quick look will reveal that the head of the 'arrow' is not a sharp arrowhead, but a round suction cup.

Maria's forehead was firmly sucked by the suction cup, and Pegasus turned into a unicorn.

"Even idiots have their limits. At least check what kind of contract you've signed, little knight~"

A familiar voice appeared beside Orson. The 'tracker' that Maria had described as extremely terrifying and dangerous, who had rudely kicked the door open earlier - Casimir, the fourth-level knight, Gravel, sat across from the two of them. He smiled and held the pen on the table in his palm and said.

"You really haven't changed at all, Orson."

Not only Li, another slightly lazy and familiar voice slowly came from outside the restaurant.

The Kuranta girl with waist-length snow-white hair and amber eyes put the compound bow behind her and walked to Osonmaria and sat next to Li.

"Ms. Platinum, Ms. Li, long time no see!"

Orson greeted the two 'trackers' happily.

"Call me 'Senomi', um, it's been a while. As a token of our long-awaited reunion, let's do a killer whale-style greeting."

Li said to Orson with a charming smile.

"Killer whale... uh, please allow me to decline, Miss Senomi."

Listening to Li's words, Orson suddenly recalled the misunderstanding he and Skadi had on the bridge of Rhodes Island.

"Oh yeah? Looks like you, little knight, already know how killer whales greet each other. What a shame."

Although her attempt to French kiss Orson in this way failed, Li was not too disappointed. She still maintained a relaxed attitude.

"You become like this when you meet Orson. You looked so scary when you were dealing with the radicals before."

Bai Jin, who was standing by, saw Remi's attitude and grumbled softly, then turned his attention to Maria, who had been keeping her head down and silent since the beginning, with an expression of 'being caught doing something bad'.

"So—young Miss Linguang, your mobility is still as troublesome as ever. If I hadn't had Casimir's intelligence network, perhaps Orson would have been caught by you."

"Well……!"

After hearing what Platinum said, Maria's ears drooped instantly. It seemed that she knew that what she did was inappropriate.

"So what's going on? Can you tell me now?"

Orson, who had been kept in the dark from the beginning, asked curiously. However, as soon as he said this, three pairs of eyes, including Maria who was extremely depressed just now, two Kuranta and one Zarak, instantly focused on the Chimera.

"Orson!" X3

"Wow!?"

The three girls almost simultaneously leaned over to Orson. Orson, who was trapped at the corner of the table, stepped back first, but his back hit the wall.

"Ahem... Seriously, I've been fooled by that idiot hero too. Anyway, that clueless lady actually did all this just to get you to sign this contract."

Platinum, who had a relatively cold personality, was the first to come to his senses. The white-haired Pegasus coughed and held up the mysterious document.

[Confirmation of Contract for Trainers for the First Pretty Derby Competition] - this is the entire title of the document.

"Pretty… uh, what is this?"

Orson blinked; he was sure there hadn't been any such activity in Casimir a few months ago.

"It's a new type of competitive competition. You can think of it as an extension of the previous knight competitions. However, compared to previous knight competitions, Pretty Derby focuses more on entertainment. People don't participate for the title of 'knight', but to promote the spirit of vitality and prosperity... That's it."

Maria explained quietly after her plot had failed miserably.

After experiencing the Commercial Association turmoil, Casimir has now greatly weakened the influence of the Knightly Competition and put more funds into the training of regular combat knights. The original "Knightly Competition" has become more entertaining and does not involve too much content about the country itself.

"I see. So Maria was training in running back then. Sounds interesting. So who was the trainer?"

"Hehe, a trainer is the person responsible for training the contestants, little knight. Trainers will designate training plans for the contestants, pay attention to their physical and mental state, and most importantly—they'll go on dates with them, okay?"

"A date—?"

Orson blinked, while Maria turned her head away. From the side of her face, it could be seen that Maria was blushing because her purpose was exposed.

"That's probably why Miss Knight is so anxious over there."

Bai Jin said with a shrug.

"I see... Um, I'm not cut out to be a trainer, Maria. This opportunity is rare, so why don't we go see what's changed in Casimir? Uh...?"

Orson tried to change the subject, but the three people beside him not only did not stop coming closer, but instead all pulled out familiar folders from their clothes.

"Even so, Orson is my trainer!" "Little Knight, let's sign the contract~" "Orson, I'll leave it to you with reluctance."

"Ah this..."

The three contracts with different signatures were like a wall, completely blocking Orson into a corner.

12. Two horses and one mouse divide the forest

On a relatively quiet street in Casimir, there is a quaint "manor" that is not small but not overly luxurious. According to common sense, the decoration of this villa is a bit too "backward", and perhaps it would be best to renovate it. However, anyone who is familiar with the history of this manor and its symbolic meaning in Casimir would not make such a suggestion.

This mansion is the 'territory' passed down from generation to generation by the ancient Casimir family [Linguang]. The great Knight of Glory and the "Silver Spear Pegasus" who protected the country were all born in this mansion that does not look dazzling on the outside.

During the period when the "Knight Competition" was becoming increasingly prosperous and popular, this building declined along with the decline of the "Linguang" family. At the worst time, there was only a sofa and coffee table with a "For Sale" label on it in the mansion. The fanatical audience gradually forgot about this knight family that had made irreplaceable contributions to Casimir.