Only with Your Heart

Chizuru had a blurry, shadowy dream that was interrupted.

The figure of Lucroff, a young man, who defended the hard (but sincere) Chizuru when he first fell into this world.

"How have you ever lived without a horse?"

In front of Chizuru, who clung to horseback riding, Ruklov let an obvious glance appear on his stern face.

Chizuru, still unfamiliar with this world and causing problems everywhere, seemed to be the seed of Ruklov's headache. He even seemed to think of scolding Thousand Cranes harshly for each occasion as a kind of task. But no matter what, the last thing that will help Chizuru is always him.

"Turn around. I can't even try to ride that straight from the front. Keep your right hip close to the saddle..."

Standing behind Chizuru, Ruklov turned his back as he turned his hands around her hips. Almost at the same time that his body floated flutterly in an instant and the pitiful voice of "hi," was leaking, Chizuru had been put on his horse.

"Ah, there is..."

"Answer the question. Wasn't there a horse in your world?"

Thousands of cranes felt like crying out when they had such a rugged look on their fair faces that they fell in love with each other that they wanted to tremble.

Thousands of cranes were in Japan until a few weeks ago... although the words would make sense, I never felt a foreigner so close, and that was all the more so if I put the silver claw (crunchy tears) together as a jalajara, twice as wide as the Japanese knife, however super aesthetic with two horrible long swords on my back.

Oh, don't forget you carry a short sword on your hips, either.

Not a cell phone.

Really.

"It's not like I'm not here, but I don't ride to get around. Some of you may ride, but at least in my country, there was no one to ride but a hobby. Instead there are trains and cars..."

"Densha?"

I was asked back with a serious face.

Luklov's narrowed eyes seek to explain Chizuru. But how the hell am I supposed to tell people in a world where bicycles, let alone even carriages, aren't very popular about trains? Should we start with electricity or power first?

For now,

"It's like an iron box... you pay for it and if you're on it, you get to your destination on your own"

Chizuru gave that overview.

Ruklov nodded and gave a convincing voice.

"Magic."

"... uh..."

"Sorry, but such advanced spells do not exist in this world. You have to learn enough to ride a horse on your own."

"That's... wow, okay, but"

It was also a moment of fear that maybe this man might not be compatible forever.

No, maybe it's the moment you start thinking about wanting to be with this guy forever. Ruklov squeezed the horse's reins with his accustomed hand and rode behind Hikari and Chizuru.

Chizuru trembles, feeling his rough flesh perfectly behind his back.

And Chizuru still remembers the blistering voice of Ruklov whispered in his ear.

"Well... until then, I'll give you a ride"

In the morning, the sunflower wore the area white.

Thousands of cranes slowly opened their eyelids, but felt sharp pain around their temples and closed their eyes again. After a while, I open my eyes again carefully.

A stone wall filled with ancient colors first entered his sight, and Chizuru blinded his eyes several times as he wandered.

It's the colour of Lucroff's world.

That's what I thought, brought a sigh of relief and twisted my body to change direction. Turn around and I feel like there's a rucroft plush there.

But it wasn't Lucrov's temperature that I found.

It's not even Lucrov's room.

An unfamiliar, circular, small room... a ragged laying cloth like a bad quality hemp bag... a raw smell like moss. And he's sitting with his back on the stone wall, Bal.

"Huh..."

Chizuru rose.

Precisely, I tried to get up, but at that moment I got a terrible headache and I had to hold my head in with both hands and round my back.

Gun, the kind of shock that is ringing the gun and bell sticks in my head.

I was thirsty and sore to my stomach.

"What..."

Eventually, slowly, Chizuru raised his face. Although I don't know the situation yet, I'm already about to overflow with tears.

Oh, Luklov.

"Sorry"

In a dark and dull voice, Bal, with a pale face, shrugged. I have dark bears under my eyes, with moles and cuts on the edges of my lips that look like someone hit me hard.

"I couldn't protect you. I should have died, but I shouldn't have given you away."

To that extent, Bal glanced down disappointingly.

The outfit is the same as it was when it happened, but it seemed clean. That is completely thin and dirty. The color stain of scorched tea was not known whether it was soil or blood.

"This is... where?

Managing to squeeze out his trembling voice, Chizuru looked around.

The room is cylindrical and the high ceilings shrink slightly more than the floor. Only one small window was out of reach, and three rusty iron lattices lined vertically to prevent intruders.

Or they're rejecting the escapees.

I could only imagine it being the top floor of some kind of tower from the structure. But that's all. The place, the situation and the position are all invisible in the morning mist.

Bal began to poke and explain in gloom with his face facing down.

"I don't know where it is...... but we've been captured"

"But... who..."

"The other day you were unconscious, two escorts appeared instead. According to what I managed to make one of them confess... it was the intention of Count Kaftor"

Chizuru was stunned.

Count Kaftor is, perhaps, the old father of Exia. You know, an old man after Ruklov's leg loss... Exia has also suggested marriage, at least ostensibly, to stop this old Count's rampage.

But was it different?

Exia was working with her father to come to Lucroff's castle carrying the role of a secret detective. He deliberately snagged two more friends around, usually disrupting the guard of the perfect Lucrov castle. And the kidnapping of a thousand cranes. What's beyond that?

Feeling despair, Chizuru nodded powerlessly.

"To kick Luklov out of this territory...? Take me hostage, you have to leave or you're gonna kill me, or you're gonna dawn on me if you leave?

Bal raised his face only slightly and answered sarcastically with an edge of his lips.

"Yeah, probably"

If I woke up from a happy dream, the world was gray and heavy, with nightmarish realities lying in front of me.

Then Bal explained to me, in a tasteless, emotionless voice, biting through the details he knew.

That a whole day has already passed since the two of them were taken away. Bal woke up on the road being transported here, but that he was being teased of monkeys (sawdust) after being restrained of his hands and feet and could not defy them. Hi, this place is deep in the woods, and that it won't be so easy for outsiders to find it...

Chizuru was silently listening to those explanations.

I just woke up and I feel like my whole body is stuck in exhaustion. I blurred my eyes and had to eat up my teeth and whisk my breath to keep my tears from spilling.

"But... how did they even take you away...?

In response to Chizuru's question, which was raised without force, Bal shook his neck to the left and right and replied looking at a point on the wall somewhere, not Chizuru.

"For, for one thing, I persevered in eating down and trying to fight. I didn't expose him, like I was going to let him take you away. On the other hand, I guess I had no choice in the situation. Second..."

That's it, Bal showed something of hesitation for a moment.

"Secondly, it seems that I also went away at the same time because I saw that I could confuse the Duke of Ruklov"

Behind Chizuru's brain, Luklov's bitter confession was remembered.

"Ugh... you think you're hiding from me and planning to run off with other guys in the back"

Thousand cranes didn't think of it, and I felt like I wanted to stick up on the spot and cry out. Oh, my God. If there were no witnesses on that spot... Luklov, who returned, would face to face with the reality that Chizuru and Baru had disappeared at the same time.

If that wicked witty Exia hears that the two of them tricked Ruklov into really running off...

"Sorry......"

I felt Bal's voice crushed in pain sounding strangely far away.