Chapter 436: Flying Centaurs

"Sigrid?" Claudia’s gentle voice broke through her intense, filthy internal monologue. "I’m about to go back inside to dish up some breakfast. I made a huge pot of roasted potatoes with rich, savory gravy. Would you like a plate?"

Sigrid winced slightly as her stomach gave a heavy, bloated slosh. Embarrassment washed over her anew.

"N-No...thank you, Claudia." Sigrid murmured, staring blankly ahead. "I’ve...already eaten plenty this morning."

"Oh? So early? What on earth did you eat?"

Sigrid took a slow breath, her gaze hollow. "Cream. A lot of cream."

Claudia frowned, completely baffled. "Cream? For breakfast? What kind of dish is served with that much cream...?"

Sigrid didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Her stomach was literally sloshing with liters of Luca’s hot, heavy semen. She felt as though she had consumed an entire seven-course banquet purely composed of his fluid.

The thought of taking a single bite of actual food made her feel like she might burst!

’Just one night...’.

She shuddered internally, a sudden chill running down her spine.

’Just one night of his ’punishment’ left me completely incapacitated.’

’What in the gods’ names would happen to me if he actually took me properly...?’

"Well, if you’re sure." Claudia interrupted her fantasies. "But do let me know if your jaw continues to bother you—I have some excellent remedies."

"I will. Thank you."

Sigrid watched Claudia walk away, then let out a long, relieved breath.

That was close.

But her relief was short-lived, because at that exact moment, a cry of pain rang out across the training grounds.

"OW! FUCK! That hurts!"

Every head turned.

Riley was on the ground, clutching one of her horse legs, her face contorted with pain. Nella stood beside her, her eyes wide with alarm.

"I-I didn’t do anything!" Nella protested. "She was chasing me, and then she just—she just fell!"

"Riley!" Claudia rushed over, her earlier conversation with Sigrid forgotten. "Little sister, what happened?!"

Sigrid followed immediately, all thoughts of her own discomfort pushed aside.

Soon Riley was surrounded by concerned centaurs, all of them speaking at once.

"Is she alright?"

"What happened?"

"Did she break something?"

"Someone get a healer!"

"Make way! Make way! Doctor coming through!"

Luca’s voice cut through the murmuring crowd like a bell, and to his faint surprise, the centaurs actually moved, making space and some of them even bowing their heads a little as he passed.

’So that’s what it’s like.’ He thought, bemused. ’One day of fixing legs and suddenly I’ve got a title.’

Though he supposed it made a certain amount of sense. He had, in the space of a single afternoon, restored twenty-some women to full mobility — women who had been hobbling on canes and leaning on their grandchildren for years.

To these people, that wasn’t medicine. That was closer to a miracle. So if he wanted to call himself a doctor, they would happily let him.

He knelt down beside Riley.

"Alright. Tell me what’s going on."

Riley forced a smile onto her face, a brittle, unconvincing thing.

"N-Nothing’s wrong, Hero. Truly. I just stumbled on a rock or something. It’s nothing worth worrying about."

But before she could continue her denial, Nella stepped forward. The little pony’s eyes were glistening with unshed tears, her small body trembling with a mixture of fear and frustration.

"Stop lying!" She shouted, her voice cracking. "You always do this! You always say nothing’s wrong when something clearly is!"

She pointed an accusatory hoof at her aunt, her tears finally spilling over.

"If you don’t tell him what’s really wrong right now, I won’t ever speak to you again! I mean it, Riley!"

The threat hung in the air, and Riley’s forced smile faltered.

Because Nella was right.

She had been hiding this pain for weeks now, enduring it in silence, refusing to burden anyone with her suffering.

It was the knightly way—the strong endured without complaint, the weak sought pity. And Riley had always prided herself on being strong.

But looking at her niece’s tearful face, at the genuine fear and frustration in those young eyes, something inside her cracked.

She let out a shaky breath and slowly, reluctantly, released her grip on her leg.

"I...I honestly don’t know what’s wrong." She admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. "But for the past few weeks, maybe even longer, I’ve been feeling this pain. It comes and goes, but lately it’s been getting worse. Much worse."

She extended her hoof toward Luca, wincing as the movement sent a fresh spike of pain through her leg.

"It’s the bottom of my hooves." She continued, her voice growing steadier as she finally gave voice to what she had been hiding. "The pain started subtle at first, easy to ignore. But these past two weeks..."

She swallowed hard.

"Whenever I walk on rough terrain, or anywhere that puts pressure on my legs, it feels like sharp needles stabbing through me. And just now—"

She let out a bitter laugh.

"—just now, I stepped on a rock. A single, tiny rock. And it felt like I’d been run through with a blade."

She looked away, unable to meet anyone’s eyes.

"To fall down from something so trivial...it’s pathetic."

"Having an injury isn’t pathetic!"

The words exploded from Nella’s mouth with such force that Riley actually flinched.

The little pony was trembling now, not just with tears, but with genuine fury.

"What’s pathetic is you! Hiding your pain from everyone, pretending everything’s fine, all because of your stupid pride and your knightly honor!"

Nella’s voice cracked with emotion.

"You know what? Not only is it pathetic—it’s stupid! This is exactly why I call you stupid, Riley! Because you’re so dumb! So damn stupid!"

And then, her anger spent, Nella burst into tears.

Riley stared at her niece, completely caught off guard. "Nella...I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—"

But Claudia was already there, wrapping her arms around her sobbing daughter. She held Nella close, stroking her hair, before turning her gaze toward Riley.

"She’s right, you know."

Riley’s older sister’s voice was calm, but there was steel beneath it.

"You went through such obvious pain, and you never told anyone. Not your friends. Not your commander. Not even me, your own sister."

Claudia’s expression hardened.

"I never want you to do something like this ever again, Riley. Do you understand? Just imagine what could have happened if you hadn’t fallen down today. If you had kept hiding it. The damage could have become permanent. Irreversible."

Riley had no words.

She simply bowed her head, shame flooding through her.

"...I’m sorry, Big Sis."

Claudia sighed, and the hardness went out of her as she patted her sister’s head.

"There. That’s better. Now let Luca look at you."

And every eye in the training ground turned to Luca.

He had been quiet the whole time. But while everyone else had been arguing, Luca had been down on his knees with his hands wrapped gently around Riley’s hoof, examining it.

And Riley’s face was slowly turning the color of her hair.

Because the hoof was, for a centaur, an extremely personal thing. It was the very base of them. The place they grounded against the earth.

Nobody touched another centaur’s hooves unless something was very, very badly wrong, and now this man was running his fingers around the grooves and ridges of her forefoot, pressing gently, turning it this way and that under the morning light, exactly the way a proper physician would.

It made something warm and strange curl low in her stomach, and she had to look very hard at the horizon to keep her composure.

"Well..." Luca said at last, looking up.

Everyone leaned in.

"It’s honestly not a complicated problem. Nothing to worry about."

The collective breath that went out of the crowd could have powered a windmill.

"It’s just—" He looked back down and gave her hoof a gentle, exploratory rub. "Your hooves are deteriorating, Riley. They’re breaking down."

Riley blinked. "What? What do you mean?"

Even Sigrid looked confused. "What exactly does that mean, Luca? I’ve never heard of a centaur’s hooves breaking down."

Luca’s brow furrowed. "You haven’t?"

"Never." Sigrid confirmed. "In all our history, I’ve never heard of such a thing."

Luca looked genuinely confused by this information, but he pressed on.

"Her outer hooves have become very dry and brittle. From all the gradual travel on upward slopes and heavy terrain, small cracks have formed around the edges."

He pointed to the hairline fractures barely visible on the surface.

"They’re tiny right now—barely more than scratches. But they’re there."

Gasps rippled through the gathered centaurs.

"If this continues." Luca continued. "The cracks will get deeper. They’ll eventually expose the sensitive tissue underneath. And trust me—" He glanced at Riley with genuine concern. "—that will be far more painful than what you’re experiencing now."

Riley swallowed hard.

He turned her hoof over, examining the underside.

"There’s also some chipping and flaking here. Probably from walking on stone roads and rocky terrain. And underneath..." He pressed gently, and Riley winced. "There’s bruising. The tissue has become swollen and tender."

He set her hoof down carefully and looked at the assembled centaurs.

"Overall, her hooves are in very bad condition. And the reason for that is simple—" He paused, frowning. "—she hasn’t been wearing horseshoes."

A confused silence followed.

"Horseshoes?" Sigrid tilted her head. "What are those?"

"You know...horseshoes." Luca said like it was obvious. "The metal plates that horses wear on their hooves?"

When the blank expressions didn’t change, he gestured vaguely.

"Back in my world, horses wear them to protect their hooves from wear and tear. Since your lower halves are essentially horse bodies, I assumed you’d have something similar."

Sigrid shook her head. "Not at all. We don’t wear such things."

"You...You don’t?" Luca stared at her in dismay.

"We’ve never worn shoes or slippers or sandals or any sort of footwear. Not like humans or elves or vampires do."

Sigrid gestured at her own hooves. "Our hooves are naturally solid. They can handle any terrain."

"But they should still wear down." Luca argued. "With all the rough terrain and the weight of your bodies pressing down on them, there should be gradual degradation."

"Of course, some horses have stronger hooves than others, but even they need maintenance eventually. And Riley’s—" He looked at her hoof again, genuinely perplexed. "—hers are particularly brittle. I’ve never seen anything quite like it."

Claudia stepped forward, shaking her head.

"You don’t understand, Luca. We never needed horseshoes because mana reinforced our hooves."

Luca’s head came up. "Mana."

Riley nodded, finding her voice despite the lingering embarrassment.

"When mana existed throughout the world, it affected every part of us. But our hooves were especially influenced."

She explained: "We could run faster, move quicker. We could even walk on air for short distances. There were air elemental enchantments woven into our hooves—they made us lighter, faster, stronger. Everyone could do it."

"Walk on air?" Luca repeated, astonished.

"It’s true!" Nella nodded eagerly, wiping the last of her tears away. "We could step into the sky! Not for very long, but still!"

"I used to jump over trees." One elder added, a nostalgic smile crossing her face. "It was so much fun."

"Hills were nothing to us." Another chimed in. "We could cross entire valleys in minutes."

"Just thinking about those days brings back memories..."

Sadness crept into their expressions as reality reasserted itself.

"But because mana has been depleted, we’ve lost those abilities." Sigrid let out a weary sigh. "The air-walking. The enhanced speed. The endurance."

"...All of them."