"Why are you here?"
"..."
Mejiros are just nothing but a pain in my ass!!!
After the night walk, the young man had to pretend that he was walking toward the trainers' inns to fool Palmer. He doesn't know how Palmer would react if she knew he was staying at the trainees' inns, but he doesn't want to fuck around and find out. Once Palmer went into the inn, he sneaked back into the trainees' inn only for Mejiro Dober to catch him.
"I was… looking for Symboli Rudolph's room. I have… things to talk about with her."
"Can you not wait for tomorrow?"
"...Curiosity killed the cat."
"Oookaaay… What does that have to do with you being here, Trainer Igo Heita?"
Tracen is too focused on brawn that the brain is completely negated. I worry about their future now.
"I could, but I would like to finish what I can so I can do more tomorrow."
"..."
Dober was reminded just how different Igo Heita is compared to most. There's a reason why Team Minaz is currently the team that everyone has their eyes on.
"Do you want me to bring you there?"
"Huh?"
Saying that the young man was taken aback is an understatement. Mejiro Dober, who is known to have an irrational fear of men, is offering a man help as his personal guide. The young man debated whether to accept her offer. He ponders which option will lead him down the path that won't put him in more trouble.
As the young man ponders his next move, the little Uma ponders her latest one. Why did she offer her hand to him? He surely is capable of navigating this place on his own, right? She mindlessly offers him her hand, moving before her mind can think carefully about her next move.
"If you're offering, sure. This place is a maze anyway."
"Yeah…"
The young man decides to take Dober's offer. It would be quite weird in Dober's mind if the young man knew where Symboli Rudolph's room is.
The young man follows a few steps behind Mejiro Dober. She is uncomfortable around men after all, so he still needs to put a wall between them for both of their own good.
Our positions are reversed.
The young man's mind wanders back to when he and Dober were walking like this in Tokyo. He was shopping with Teio when they ran to McQueen and Dober, and one thing led to another, and at the end of the night, he had to walk Dober to Tracen Academy in the rain. It wasn't a memory that the young man assigned a particular emotion to. For him, it was just there.
Dober also notices that she is now being the one in the lead. She is letting a man walk behind her, where she cannot see what he is planning or doing. Normally, Dober's mind would be racing to think of the worst-case scenario. But that is not what is happening with the young man. Dober's mind is oddly calm and collected. Her heart isn't beating hard, nor is her breath ragged. She is fully entrusting her most defenseless area to a man.
Is this his view and feeling from back then? Entrusting me with his back and believing that I would not do anything bad to him. I didn't have any ill intent, but still… He put that much trust in someone he had just met. He doesn't strike me as a naive man.
With the role reversed, the young man is now looking at Dober from behind rather than just hearing her footsteps. He can now observe Mejiro Dober's casual outfit up close–a simple white dress with open shoulders and dark leggings. If it were McQueen, Igo Heita would have slipped his hands down the opening on her shoulders. But this is Dober, someone who is extremely nervous around men. There's nothing more dangerous than a nervous umamusume. A kick from them could kill an adult human.
"Is it always this quiet, Mejiro Dober?"
"Huh… Noo… This is the first time this has happened."
As Dober said, the trainees' inns are always rowdy. There should be screamings, yellings, talkings, gossiping, gruntings, etc. But there is none for today. She did hear that they're doing an invasion of some sort, but she just threw it into weird wording.
The more important thing is, Dober didn't realize how quiet everything was. She is an umamusume whose hearing is 3 times better than humans. The young man shouldn't be the one who notices how empty the inn is, it should be her. It's as if, when she is with Igo Heita, a barrier is formed between them and the real world, isolating the couple in their own little world.
The only thing I can hear… is his footsteps.
Why? Why can I not pull my ears away from him? Why is it only him that I have my attention on?
The pair walks up to an intersection in the road. All roads lead to Rudolph's room, but the closest path would be straight. The left added a few minutes as it goes through a wing of the inn, while the right added the most as it goes through a garden. Logically, Dober would guide the young man to the straight road, but as the pair entered the intersection–
"Symboli Rudolph's room is through the right."