According to the original plan, after Shade rested briefly, the group set out from the camp. Dorothy was not good at riding, so Shade carried her on horseback, while Tifa and the other two maids rode the remaining three horses.
The group spent a rather leisurely afternoon in the early spring countryside. Dorothy, who was not skilled at riding, even pulled Shade along and invited him to race on an untraveled country dirt road, agreeing that the loser would grant the winner one request.
No matter how foolish the Outlander was, he knew without "her" reminder that he absolutely could not win such a contest. Sure enough, after Dorothy crossed the finish line first, the wish she whispered into Shade's ear was:
"Knight, I'm staying at your home tonight."
Besides riding, they found a patch of woodland nearby that belonged to no one. They had a picnic beside a stream and drank afternoon tea. At Shade's invitation, after preparing the tea set and pastries, the maids also sat down on the picnic blanket.
Dorothy was in high spirits and invited them to talk about their own stories, as well as how they had become Miss Galina's maids and followers. She herself also spoke of the time she had lived alone after graduating from the girls' Academy, before becoming a famous writer.
It was only then that Shade learned that after Dorothy graduated and moved out of Louisa's home, she had gone through a somewhat difficult period because she had no income. If the landlady had not been willing to lower the rent and let her continue living there, she would probably have moved out of her apartment on Quill Street long ago.
That was also why Dorothy, despite making a fortune from the "Detective Hamilton Story Collection," had never considered