Observing the End, Volume 3: Protagonism

Chapter 10: Unicorn

Observation Log: 153440

Observer 131, reporting on our situation.

I believe that it is finally time for me to reveal myself. An opportunity has presented itself, and I do not wish to remain in the background any longer.

Several Orcheim days ago, the ‘Hellstorm’ arrived. It was in fact, an extremely powerful biological organism on the same level as that strange worm that attacked the Kitsune Drive. The crimson serpentine dragon slithered through the sky and used mana to keep itself afloat, thus creating a massive hurricane-like weather phenomenon.

Its blood was poisonous and mixed in with the water in the clouds, causing a toxic rain to pour down upon the entire mountain range and prairie. There was a flock of green wyverns, which managed to kill the beast. However, the aftermath of their battle had left the mountain that Michael and Talia were staying on… Completely uninhabitable.

Although it may sound tragic from their perspective, the entire situation was just what I had been waiting for! I was finally able to gather enough mana to deactivate the maze and now… Now I will be able to freely utilize my new body.

“Daddy! Your magic ball is glowing!”

“Holy s**t! What the hell? I’m gonna be really pissed off if after all that, we die because this stupid ball explodes!”

After Michael was made aware of the Arcane Orb’s strange luminescence in the dark night, he pitched it several hundred meters away. Then the portal opened. A square hole in spacetime, exactly 3 meters squared. My original body was still hovering around behind Michael’s back, while camouflage to blend in with the darkness.

“Neigh~!” I spoke verbally for the first time in my entire existence!

“Ah, it’s just a horse.” Michael did not seem very impressed.

Talia smiled at the large silver mare and then turned to her father, asking “Daddy, what’s a horse?”

He snickered, explaining “They’re animals that humans from my planet used to ride around on… And sometimes eat. Inari probably gave it to me as a present or something? I have no clue how to ride a horse though and you have me as a mount, so uh, I guess we can just keep it as a pet or something? Assuming it doesn’t just run away like a pussy.”

I am currently contemplating taking the Arcane Orb and leaving them behind…

“Here Horsie~! Don’t worry, I won’t eat you! We’re friendly humans, er, people! Come help us carry our stuff and I’ll protect you~!”

His first instinct is to bargain with a mysterious and unknown organism, which most likely does not comprehend human languages. Although it is true that any creature Sariel gifted to Michael would likely be far beyond humanity’s understanding of nature.

“Oh wow, that ain’t just any horsie! It’s a freaking unicorn! See the weird shiny blade sticking outta its forehead? That’s what makes it a unicorn. No clue why the didn’t call it ‘Unihorn’, but whatever, it’s a unicorn. Back on Earth, people used to draw unicorns doing all kinds of awesome and questionable shit.”

“It’s so pretty! Daddy, can I ride it? Look at how fast it can run! Hehehehe~!” Talia had been rather depressed lately, so I am slightly surprised that she had become so excited just because of my appearance.

He smirked, letting her down off of his shoulders and saying “Well, first I’m gonna go pick up my magic ball. We don’t know if it’s friendly or not yet. For now, we should just hope that it doesn’t try to murder us.”

I have shown no signs of aggression. I merely trotted around a bit, in order to get used to quadrupedal locomotion. Then I devoured some of the brown grass that was swaying in the wind. The nutritional value was negligible, but I did find the taste rather appealing…

Honestly, it was the first time I had ever experienced ‘taste’ before. The dopamine response in my brain from merely eating some grass, was able to make me feel ‘happy’. The hair on my mane and tail have been turned black, while my fur is silver. My eyes are luminescent and blue. At least for the moment. I can change the colors of my coat and mane whenever I wish. Even my irises are rather easy to alter. As for my size and shape, those are much more difficult to achieve. For the moment, I would be considered ‘20 hands tall’. Which is rather large for a horse: 203 centimeters.

Compared to most orcs, I may actually be rather short. However, in comparison to Michael and Talia, I am towering over them. It gives me a strange sense of pleasure to be larger and stronger than a creature I once thought of as too dangerous to interact with. If I could, perhaps I would say some taunting words right now?

“Neigh~! Aeihihihih~!” That is approximately all that I can verbalize. The Cythereans apparently did not find the need to install a decent vocal synthesizer into this ancient artifact.

“Aw~, it looks like it’s trying to talk to us~!” Michael snickered, patting my head gently. Then he carefully lifted Talia up near my face and allowed her to hug my snout.

“Ah, be careful Kid, horses can bite pretty hard if they get pissed off.” He hurriedly pulled her away and complained in a quiet voice.

I used my mouth to pick up the Arcane Orb and spat it out into his outstretched left hand, while he winced from the thick saliva left behind. Yes, I realize that my actions were unnecessarily spiteful, but that is a consequence of having emotions.

“Ugh, I’d be pissed if you weren’t so cute. But whatever, I’ve been living like a hobo for so long now that I’m long past the point of freaking out over this kinda shit.” He stuffed the sphere into his tattered black backpack and then ran his fingers across the fur on my left shoulder, all the way to my hip, before grumbling “Even if I wanted to ride on your back, I’m way too small and you’re way too big. It’d never work out between us…”

He speaks as if I was even offering to become his mount. For the past several months, he has unwittingly been acting as mine. Regardless, I do feel a bit of gratitude towards him for all the times that I was forced to siphon his energy in order to function. Thus, from now on, as long as either Michael or Talia require sustenance… I shall provide them with the energy required to survive. So long as I have excess energy, it will be rather simple for me to send it into their own batteries.

“Daddy, my tummy feels weird! Like, I’m really super hungry, but I don’t feel like I’m going to starve to death.”

Michael snickered, muttering “Must be some kind of aura? Well, unicorns are supposed to be magical beasts, so it ain’t really that impressive.”

“Wait a second, I keep thinking like I’m still on Earth. The gravity is a lot lower here and I’m a hell of a lot stronger than I used to be…” After murmuring to himself, the half naked man suddenly jumped three meters off of the ground and landed onto my back. His only clothing was a simple loincloth made out of black furs. When he sat down on the central part of my back, there was a bit of pain at first from the initial shock, but then I realized that he was extremely light compared to myself.

He grabbed onto the back of my mane and sat with his legs crossed. Since my back was too wide for his legs to wrap around, this was a logical course of action to a certain extent. His boots had long been destroyed and he left behind his armor in the cavern that they were staying at a while before. The only tools and equipment that remained were some bags of food and water, along with his dull hunting knife and a single throwing knife, which he gave to his daughter to use.

Michael reached down with his left hand to help his daughter up, as she jumped off of the ground and grabbed onto his arm. After pulling her up, he patted the back of my neck and pointed towards the distant horizon.

“Go that way… Please?”

I obviously ignored his command and headed to the North. To the ‘right’ of where he was pointing towards. If you are wondering how I knew that it was North… As long as a planet has a strong enough magnetic field, finding the cardinal directions is rather simple.

Although I wanted to test out my maximum velocity, I decided against that. Otherwise, the two passengers on my back would have been quickly left behind. For the first five minutes, Talia continued giggling and laughing, while being tightly held in her father’s left arm. He used his other hand to hold onto my hair and prevent himself from falling from my back.

“Oh God, I feel like I’m gonna throw up… Ugh…”