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“You remember the rules, don’t you, young miss?”
“If I touch you while you’re running, I win; if you manage to keep running until sunset, you win; and once Oswald-kun counts to ten, I start chasing you—is that right?”

The horse, whose bedhead-style mane looked charming, snorted and shook his head slightly. I guess that means I got it right.
We’re currently a short distance from the lakeshore. We moved here so as not to disturb the other animals.

“Alright, let’s get started!”
“Any time.”
“Very well.”

To be honest, I find this a bit of a hassle, but once this is over, I’ll be able to relax, so I’ll just have to grin and bear it.
Riding a bareback horse is a bit dangerous, but feeling the horse’s body heat directly is actually quite pleasant in its own way.

“Alright, let’s get started!”

The moment Oswald-kun raised his log-like arm, his opponent took off running. As you’d expect from a horse, the acceleration was incredible.
Naturally, the forest is full of trees, so we can’t just keep running in a straight line.
Yet, with skillful maneuvering, he dashes through the gaps between the trees with almost no loss of speed.
It was such a brilliant run that I could totally understand why he’d confidently declared, “I don’t listen to anyone slower than me.”

“One, two, three, four, five, six…”

I take my stance, listening leisurely to Oswald-kun-kun counting in a strangely cute voice while watching his bedhead-style mane grow smaller and smaller.
Or rather, hearing him count in that drawn-out voice makes it feel like he’s counting sheep… Far from being relaxed… I’m getting sleepy…

“—Are you asleep, Arje-neesan!? I’m done counting already!?”
“Mmm…”

Oh no, I’d even got a nose-drip—I was completely asleep.
Rubbing my closed eyes, I stretched. Hah. Come to think of it, I haven’t had my nap yet today. No wonder I’m sleepy.

“Um, Arje-neesan? Aren’t you going to chase after it?”
“No need to.”
“Huh?”
“Our shadows are connected.”

I pointed at my shadow.
My shadow, cast by the sunlight filtering through the trees, was shimmering like a mirage as the leaves swayed. But that wasn’t all.
A thin shadow extends from right above the top of my head, stretching all the way into the depths of the forest. An abnormal shadow, not created by the sunlight.
The destination of this shadow is the shadow of that horse with the lovely, bedhead-like mane.
This is a technique that utilizes a high-level Shadow Form skill, allowing me to connect my shadow with that of another object. I suppose you could call it “Shadow Binding.”

“Shadow Form.”

I had my plan in place even before the race even started. All that’s left is to use the skill.
As a shadow, I moved toward the horse’s shadow automatically and at high speed, like a fishing line being reeled in. Easy peasy.
Since this skill allows me to turn into a shadow along with the clothes I’m wearing, there’s no need to go through the hassle of taking them on and off.

As the Shadow Form skill levels up, in addition to things like tying shadows together as I’m doing now, you’ll be able to gain hearing and vision even while in shadow form.
Using that ability to peek out from within the shadow, I saw the horse galloping through the forest as if it were its own backyard, its mane—which looked like bedhead—fluttering in the wind.

“Hmph… guess can’t catch up to me, after all.”
“I wouldn’t say that..”
“Neigh!?”

Whoa, a horse-like squeal.
Thinking that, I brought only my upper body back from the shadow.
Since my lower body remained in the shadow, whenever the horse ran, I moved along with it. To an outside observer, it must have looked like a girl was growing out of the shadow.
Being able to pull off tricks like this is all thanks to how I allocated my skill points. I’m really glad I distributed them exactly as recommended. Slowly stepping out of the shadows, I reached around from the side and touched her stomach.

“Okay, tagged you.”
“Grr…”
“So, I win… right?”
“…No arguments.”

Since my opponent slowly eased up, I stepped completely out of the shadows as well.
Honestly, I think I could have won without doing any of this.
Even without running at full speed, I can run as fast as a car these days.
Of course, a horse probably could go as fast as a car… but when I’m going all out, I’m even faster.

There would have been no problem at all if I’d just crushed him with my raw power, but I used this trick because, of course, I didn’t want the hassle.
If he hadn’t admitted defeat after this, I was planning to run at full speed, but I’m relieved it didn’t come to that.

“Well then, Mister… uhh. I don’t like the idea of calling you Mr. Horse forever. Well, let’s give you a name.”
“Hmph… I’ve lost. You can call me whatever you like, young miss.”
“Then I’ll call you Behaki-san.”
“…………”

He gave me quite a look.
It was somewhere between anger and exasperation. It was such a subtle expression that I found myself thinking, “So horses can make faces like that, too.”

“Behaki, short for Bed Hair King.”
“……O-okay.”

Since he’d already told me to “call me whatever you like,” he probably felt he couldn’t take it back. He seems pretty serious.
If he didn’t like it, he could’ve just said so, and I would’ve thought of a different name. Since he has black fur, I was thinking of “Schwarz” (German for black) or “Noir” (French for black).

I could tell from his vibe that he didn’t like it, but since he didn’t say so explicitly, his name became Behaki. To me, it was a name that fit him perfectly.
It’s important to speak your mind, isn’t it? I always honestly say when I want to take a nap.

“Phew, I’m tired. I’d like to take a nap.”

Yup, just like that.
Behaki-san was staring at me with an intense look, but I have no zest to deal with him, so I just ignored him.