“Wait a minute, Leo. Surely you don’t want me to run around like that…”
“You should play too, Mr. Takumi!”
“Wou! Wou!”
Realizing the prospect of someone joining in, Tilura smiled at me with great expectation in her eyes.
Leo continued to tug at my clothes and would not let go…
…I suppose I had no choice but to yield and play with them.
While I didn’t consider myself old, it could still be very exhausting when you had to run around and play with children and dogs.
“Hehe. Sorry, Mr. Takumi, but it looks like you’ve been enlisted.”
“…Ms. Claire… Very well. I’ll go.”
“Yes, do enjoy!”
I was practically dragged away from the mansion and to the open space in the back garden. This was where Tilura and Leo had been running around a moment ago.
After cheerfully seeing me off, Ms. Claire and Sebastian smiled and watched over us.
I will likely have sore muscles tomorrow… Still, if it would make Leo and Tilura happy, it was fine.
“Mr. Takumi, what game should we play?”
“Wou?”
“Indeed… What if I throw a stick, and Leo has to catch it before it hits the ground?”
“Wou!”
“But what should I do?”
“You can ride on Leo’s back. It’s quite fun to feel the speed while Leo is running!”
“That does sound like fun!”
“Wuff!”
It was as if Leo understood my words without a doubt. And she then crouched low so that Tilura could get on top.
She was laying lower than when Ms. Claire and I had got on top, because Tilura was much shorter.
So Leo was able to be considerate of others now…
I felt a little bit emotional as I thought of such things and picked up a few tree branches that were on the ground.
“Wuff!”
“Mr. Takumi, I’m ready!”
“Alright then. Leo, let’s go!’
Leo stood up and prepared to run now that Tilura was on her back.
I faced the opposite direction of the mansion, and then threw the tree branch as far as I could.
…I really need to exercise more… The branch did not go as far as I had hoped. It drew an arch through the air and looked like it would land about twenty meters ahead.
“You can do it, Leo!”
“Gauu!”
As Tilura cheered, Leo barked once that then dashed out like the wind.
But I could see that she was trying to run steadily so that Tilura wouldn’t fall off…that was very clever of Leo.
Now that I think about it, weren’t dogs faster than horses when it came to short distance races?
Because dogs could reach their maximum speed much faster… Well, my memory wasn’t too clear about it, so I could be wrong.
In the first place, Leo was larger than any horse, so she must be faster than race horses.
In fact, when riding on her, her speed felt comparable to riding a car down the highway.
It could have been nearly 100 kilometer per hour?
…I wonder how she compared to cheetahs, who were said to be the fastest land animal in the world… If there was a similar animal in this world, I would like to see them race.