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Their eyes met.

A chill ran down her spine. Its reddish-gold eyes seemed to burn with madness. No—an ominous aura like miasma appeared to pour from its entire body.
She could see it drawing rough, heavy breaths.

The horns were gold because of disease, and in its suffering it had grown ferocious. The speculation she had heard when looking at the golden horn displayed in the villa was surely correct.

The river, four or five meters wide, suddenly felt narrow. The Great Horned Auroch was no laughing matter in size. It was far larger than the cyclopean bear the knights had subjugated the other day.
Even that One-Eye Bear had weighed an estimated two hundred kilograms. But the auroch before her was larger by a full measure—no, far more than that. In an agricultural manga she had once loved in her previous life, she recalled reading that even a relatively light cow weighed around five hundred kilograms. This beast, which appeared larger than an ordinary cow, might well approach a ton.

A news article she had once seen online surfaced in her mind: in the natural world, the most terrifying animals were not carnivores, but massive herbivores. In Africa, it was well known that hippos were more dangerous than lions; in Alaska, moose reportedly caused higher fatality rates than bears in encounters…

Stop it! Do not dredge up frightening memories at a time like this!

She could not look away from those madness-filled eyes. If she broke eye contact, it would charge at that instant. It would cross the river in moments, as though it were nothing. She felt certain of it.

She braced her core and forced strength into her gaze, as though pushing back. At the same time, she slowly drew her feet out of the water.
If only the ground beneath the auroch had been soil, she might have fought it with her magic. But this was rocky terrain. Her magic was earth-aspected; she could not manipulate stone. And if she diverted her attention to cast a spell, the auroch would surely attack at once.

They would have to maintain eye contact, slowly widen the distance, and flee. That was the only option.
To do that, she first had to stand.

Keeping her upper body as still as possible, she slowly lifted one knee, trying to place her foot back upon the rock where she had been sitting. Her skirt slid down from her thighs; her legs were fully exposed. Both hands were braced on the rock to support her body. She had no means to hold down her skirt.
For a noble young lady, it was an outrageous state—if someone saw her like this, it might be cause to consider suicide.
But survival came first. There was no time to worry about appearances. No one was here to see.

Or so she thought.

“Do not stop me! That Great Horned Auroch has golden horns. If it truly is ferocious, we cannot let it escape! Tell Aleksei to pull back the beaters and—”

(Huh?)

At the sudden voice, Ekaterina reflexively turned her head.

Her eyes met those of summer-sky blue.
Perfectly.

.

“……”

Blank.
Her posture, the position of her skirt—everything flew from her mind. She froze completely.

“……”

Mikhail, who had appeared on the opposite bank, was frozen as well.
The fact that he stared so openly revealed his confusion. Normally, so impeccably composed, he would have at once averted his gaze with some apology.

Yes, look away! How long are you going to stare, you fool Prince!

The scream in Lady Ekaterina’s mind was translated into something more befitting a young noblewoman—

“Ky—”

Just as a shriek was about to burst from her lips—

.

BMOooooooo—!!

The roar of the magical beast thundered.
The one-ton Great Horned Auroch slammed its forehooves against the rock. With a crashing sound, a boulder the size of a man’s embrace split in two.

Its madness-burning eyes turned upon Mikhail. Even in insanity, instinct must have told it that he was the one who would hunt it.

Mikhail came back to himself and faced the auroch. Raising his voice toward the forest along the riverbank behind him, he shouted,

“Do not come! I have found the Great Horned Auroch—I will take it!”

At that very moment, the river water surged violently.
As far as the eye could see, the flowing water fell under Mikhail’s magical dominion. It rose like a wall and then crashed down upon the auroch.

The…The Prince’s going all out! Whoa!!
He seized control of such a volume of moving water in an instant! The amount of magic, the speed of activation, the control—first-rate in every respect!
You are seriously amazing!
You are standing on the same bank as that auroch, yet there is no need to worry at all!

Ah—this is not the time to be impressed!
Surely the prince was manipulating the water so spectacularly to block the view of his attendants—and conceal me.

Flustered, Ekaterina hastily pulled her skirt down over her legs.
No, not that. That was important too, but not that.

She quickly climbed down from the rock where she had been sitting. Just then, Flora came running back, shoes in hand.

“Lady Ekaterina!”
“Lady Flora, this is dire. A Great Horned Auroch has appeared. Its horns are golden—”
“What…”

Flora’s eyes widened. She must have turned at the beast’s roar, but by then the opposite bank was obscured by the wall of water.
The time Ekaterina had stood frozen under Mikhail’s gaze had felt terribly long, but in truth it had been only seconds.

“Lord Mikhail is fighting it. We must withdraw so as not to hinder him.”
“Yes!”

And so the two girls clasped hands and ran from the spot.

.

As she ran, the same words circled again and again in Ekaterina’s mind.

Th-the prince… the prince…
THE PRINCE SAW MY THIGHS—?!