Talk about bust size and the like was, of course, just a joke. When it came to attempting "domain inheritance" through running side by side with Maruzensky, the team's trainers had already conducted very detailed analysis and discussion.
On the evening close to their departure for Kasamatsu for the "hot spring vacation," the trainers took advantage of the time after training to specially hold a short meeting focused on the situation with domains.
After all, if Japanese races were taken as the standard, Oguri Cap and the others—who had already preliminarily grasped how to enter a domain—had absolutely no problems in terms of strength. What needed more consideration instead were specific race conditions and tactical arrangements.
However, if they wanted to demonstrate their power in top overseas races next year, it was absolutely insufficient not to further strengthen their abilities related to domains.
"From what we can see now, it's probably still the influence of long-formed running habits."
Inside a conference room borrowed from the resort, Kitahara gave the opening remarks as usual.
Then he looked toward Maruzensky, who had been specially invited to participate in the meeting. After thinking for a moment, he said with a hint of apology:
"There's a saying in the competitive racing world: 'Whether someone runs well or not, you can tell just by looking at their legs.'"
"Whether a horse girl can run well, and whether she can achieve outstanding results on the track—leg shape can be a very important criterion."
"To be frank, compared to Oguri Cap and the others, Maruzensky, as a senpqi… um, your leg shape actually isn't considered particularly outstanding."
This statement was, of course, made from the perspective of competitive racing. If judged purely from an aesthetic standpoint, Maruzensky's legs hardly looked like something that could be called "not outstanding."
Especially since they had been doing swimming training these past few days.
When wearing a swimsuit, whether it was men like Kitahara and Tohara, or trainers like Komiyama and Miyamura Kyoko, everyone acknowledged that Maruzensky's leg shape—by both human and horse girl standards—was beyond reproach.
Her thighs were round and powerful, her calves full and well-defined. Both legs were long and brimming with strength, making it obvious that they would have excellent elasticity to the touch.
Her skin was also very fair, visibly glossy and smooth—so smooth that if you really touched them, your hand might even slip.
However, the criteria here were competitive racing, not a fashion show or aesthetic contest. Everyone present was an outstanding trainer in the industry and could clearly judge that Maruzensky's leg shape was not of the most perfect type.
"Leg shape, huh… when you put it that way, that's true."
Understanding why the apologetic look was on Kitahara's face—he probably felt awkward pointing out something about her physique—Maruzensky herself showed no sign of displeasure.
Not only was she not unhappy, she even crossed her legs while sitting in her chair and casually began touching and squeezing the long leg resting on top.
"I talk about things like this with Rudolf and the others all the time, so you don't need to hold back, Kitahara."
"Honestly, Rudolf, CB, Ramonu and the others all decided from the start to debut as horse girls, so they went through very proper and very strict competitive training from a young age."
"But as for me—although my family also has quite a few horse girls—my childhood dream actually wasn't racing at all."
She suddenly smiled warmly.
"I actually always wanted to become a driver."
"But after participating in races, I felt that compared to driving vehicles and such, running at wind-like speeds on my own two legs was much more exhilarating."
"So in the end, I still walked the path of competitive racing. Being a driver or racing cars just became a hobby."
"Oh, I've gone off-topic."
"To put it simply, compared to Rudolf and the others, my leg shape really isn't that outstanding."
"Their legs—trained from childhood—whether in muscle shape or strength, are much more beautiful than mine."
"Hey, did you know? Rudolf's calf muscles feel incredibly nice when you touch them while she's relaxed."
"How should I put it…"
Under the strange looks from the assembled trainers, this horse girl brazenly discussed the tactile feel of her friend's calves.
"They're extremely elastic, and very soft—when you touch them, they jiggle like jelly."
"And when she runs, they look like they're flowing, almost like water. It's really fascinating."
"If you ever get the chance, you really should try it."
After offering this seemingly earnest recommendation, Maruzensky smiled again, looking thoughtful.
"Come to think of it, Teio has some traits that are very similar to Rudolf."
"Every time I see Teio, it's like I'm seeing Rudolf when she was younger."
"It's strange… but also pretty interesting."
[How do we tell her]
"Alright, it's decided. I'll find a chance to try it out—see if Teio's calves feel as good as Rudolf's."
Maruzensky had never been particularly serious in meeting settings.
Not just within the Eisei Team—according to Rudolf Symboli's occasional complaints, even in student council meetings, board meetings, or URA Association-related conferences, she was mostly like this: saying whatever came to mind.
Seriousness simply didn't seem to exist for Maruzensky.
Influenced by her personality, Kitahara unknowingly drifted off in thought for a moment.
Of course they'd feel the same—after all, they're "parent and child"… ah, no, in this world it should be "mother and daughter."
Still, is the feel really that good? Just like Maruzensky described…?
If that were true, it wouldn't be hard to understand why Trainer Okino in the anime had such a habit of touching horse girls' calves.
Trainer Okino was the protagonist trainer in the anime, the main trainer of the main cast, with a lot of screen time.
The most memorable scene was when he first met the first season's protagonist, Special Week. Before even showing his face, he launched straight into a "low blow."
That is, from a trainer's professional perspective, he reached out and started touching and squeezing Special Week's calves.
And then he promptly got kicked in the face—twice—by a horse girl running at speeds of up to 60 km/h.
To survive getting kicked in the face twice by that kind of leg strength—one had to admit that humans in the horse girl world were extraordinarily tough.
Recalling that scene, Kitahara couldn't help but seriously consider whether he had been placing too much emphasis on data and logic in the past.
Perhaps actually touching and feeling was also an essential quality for a trainer?
Of course, that was purely from a professional trainer's standpoint—there were no other intentions.
After letting his thoughts wander for a moment, Kitahara quickly brought himself back to the topic.
"Ahem. About leg shape… in short, from what we can tell now, this is one of the 'compatibility' factors affecting 'domain inheritance.'"
Summarizing the discussion so far, he continued:
"Besides leg shape, there are other similar physique-related factors."
"At present, among data related to competitive racing, Maruzensky, you and Creek are indeed more similar. I think that's an important reason why she was able to 'inherit' your domain by chance."
Kitahara had already discussed judgments and hypotheses about domain inheritance, compatibility, physique, and so on with his colleagues, and Maruzensky was well aware of this.
Hearing this, everyone nodded. Maruzensky herself also became slightly more serious.
"If we're talking about compatibility, I've been thinking about it these past couple of days. I feel that the training characteristics before and after debut that you mentioned probably also have a very important impact."
This was another hypothesis regarding compatibility: early training habits.
Nowadays, everyone in the industry knew that Maruzensky was an extremely legendary horse girl.
Many believed that such a top-tier competitor must have undergone extremely rigorous training from childhood—but the truth was the exact opposite.
As Maruzensky herself had just said, although she, like horse girls from major families such as Rudolf Symboli, also came from a large family,
she hadn't even considered a racing career as a child, let alone special training.
Not only did she lack much training in childhood, she also hadn't undergone a long period of training before debut.
"After I decided to debut as a horse girl, I enrolled in the Central Tracen Academy."
With a nostalgic expression, Maruzensky said, "The entrance evaluation back then was pretty simple—just run a bit and you passed."
"At least, that's how it was for me."
"And back then, the Central Academy hadn't built the Miho dormitory area yet, so I lived on my own in the 'Hongo Dormitory Apartments' next to the academy."
[Reference to IRL Maruzensky's time when horses were train by their own farm instead of going to Miho and Ritto]
The Central Tracen Academy now had two major dormitory areas: Miho and Ritto.
But in Maruzensky's era, the academy hadn't been developed to its current level, and the Miho dormitory area hadn't been built yet.
Instead, they borrowed nearby residential apartments, known as the "Hongo Dormitory Area."
This was why, both in the game and in this world's reality, Maruzensky—unlike most horse girls—didn't live together with her classmates and juniors, but instead lived alone in an off-campus apartment.
"From moving into the Hongo dorms, to starting training, to my first official race—it was only a little over three months."
Maruzensky continued:
"It felt like I just ran a bit with instructors and classmates, then confirmed my trainer and went straight into racing."
"And the reason I didn't undergo high-intensity training was that my trainer noticed my calves were slightly angled outward."
"Well, what people commonly call 'X-shaped legs.'"
"I admit that this kind of leg shape really isn't ideal for a horse girl."
Since it was Maruzensky herself bringing up her leg condition this time, none of the trainers felt awkward like Kitahara had earlier. They all nodded thoughtfully instead.
"X-shaped legs" don't affect appearance much, especially when the overall figure is slender and graceful.
Maruzensky was a perfect example of that.
However, in horse girl competitions, the powerful push-off forces place greater pressure on the calves and inner sides of the feet with this leg shape. Over time, that can affect development and health.
Considering that even dormitories were borrowed at the time, it was easy to imagine that training concepts and methods back then couldn't compare to those of today.
Thus, under conditions where training time, intensity, and facilities were far from ideal, Maruzensky completed her debut race and embarked on her racing career.
That race—and everything that followed—was, of course, well known to everyone.
In her debut race, on a 1200-meter track, Maruzensky seized the lead right out of the gate and held it all the way to the finish.
By the time she crossed the line, she had opened a gap of more than ten lengths over second place, winning with an astonishingly dominant victory.
Before the race, quite a few people knew that Maruzensky's training and leg shape weren't ideal and believed she probably wouldn't win.
That legendary debut shattered those judgments and marked the beginning of the Maruzensky legend.
Leaving the legend aside, these circumstances before and after her debut led Kitahara and the others to speculate that this was one of the reasons Super Creek had such high "compatibility" with Maruzensky and could coincidentally inherit her domain.
"Since you say so yourself, Maruzensky, it seems our earlier guesses weren't too far off."
Following her explanation, Kitahara thought aloud:
"Due to leg inflammation, Creek had a long period without much training before her debut."
"After the inflammation healed, because of habits formed during her illness, she tended to land on her heels first."
"This landing method spreads the point of force across the entire sole as much as possible, reducing pressure on specific parts of the foot."
"That's exactly what my trainer taught me back then."
Maruzensky nodded. "To avoid excessive pressure on the calves and inner foot during racing, judging the landing point is crucial."
"Looking at it this way, Creek's situation is quite similar to mine. Her ability to 'inherit' my domain doesn't seem accidental."
"As for Oguri Cap and the others…"
She paused briefly, then shook her head.
"They don't have similar circumstances."
As she said, compared to Creek, Oguri Cap and Mejiro Ardan had different debut situations.
Although Oguri Cap had also experienced foot problems, it was only her left foot, and the issue was resolved before her debut.
As a result, her debut training was normal, and its intensity was definitely not low.
Back then, before she met Kitahara, she used to wake up around 4 a.m. to train, and kept that up for a long time—only later adjusting her schedule to start at 6 or 7 a.m. like the others to balance stamina.
Mejiro Ardan was another case altogether. Her issue was insufficient foot quality—regardless of how she landed, there was a risk of not being able to withstand the pressure.
After resolving that issue, she didn't deliberately adjust her landing habits.
As for Tamamo Cross and Inari One, their situations differed even more from Oguri Cap's group, making it even harder for them to adapt to Maruzensky's running details.
Differences in running habits formed before and after debut, among many other factors, created disparities among the horse girls and caused the progress of "domain inheritance" to be far from smooth.
This post-training meeting had already summarized the gains and losses of the recent period.
The three races scheduled for the day after tomorrow had also been more or less finalized during the past two days of track adaptation and post-training discussions.
So now, after clarifying matters related to domains and drawing conclusions, Kitahara said:
"In that case, we can't expect domain training to conclude anytime soon, and we'll need to make some adjustments."
"On one hand, we need to further confirm compatibility among the horse girls. Ideally, we can ask Mejiro Ramonu and CB to help."
"If they assist with training together with Maruzensky, perhaps we can further verify our existing hypotheses and advance the research on 'inheritance.'"
"On the other hand, we'll follow the remaining part of the original plan and verify the ability to 'activate domains in stages' at the Meitetsu Cup, Chukyo Memorial, and Chukyo Championship."
At this point, a relaxed expression appeared on Kitahara's face.
"We were already exploring the framework of this ability before returning from Europe, and we've been trying it during regular training."
"If nothing unexpected happens, these races should definitely allow us to demonstrate it successfully and secure a beautiful championship for the team."
"That's about it. Everyone, go back and organize your luggage—we're heading to Kasamatsu early tomorrow."
The plan to go to Kasamatsu for hot springs had already been enthusiastically shared by Oguri Cap with her companions during training breaks over the past week.
Her thinking was simple: good things should be shared with friends.
Since she found Kasamatsu's hot springs comfortable, she wanted to take advantage of this chance—when everyone was in Nagoya for special training—to enjoy them together.
And so, what had originally been a simple promise had turned into a team-wide trip to Kasamatsu.
Unlike Kitahara, who focused single-mindedly on work, the other trainers all made sure to relax properly after finishing their duties.
For example, when Komiyama and Miyamura Kyoko didn't have training or research tasks, the two girls would go shopping or sing karaoke together.
Even Tora, who was as rigidly scheduled as Kitahara during work hours, had hobbies like going to Akihabara to buy the latest games and model kits.
According to him, when he studied in the UK, he would also go drinking at bars with classmates and friends in between classes and research.
As for Maruzensky—who already loved going out and having fun—there was no need to say more. As soon as Kitahara announced the end of the meeting, she cheered happily and dashed out of the conference room.
However, after Komiyama and the others had all left, she suddenly returned.
"Hey, Kitahara, I just remembered something really interesting… huh? Are you still working?"
Upon re-entering the conference room, Maruzensky found Kitahara sitting at the desk in front of a computer, tapping away at the mouse and keyboard, looking like he was about to work overtime.
"Huh? Maruzensky, why are you back?"
After expressing his surprise, Kitahara shook his head.
"No, not really. I wouldn't call it overtime."
"I'm just downloading some race videos. That way, I'll have something to watch tomorrow on the bus or during other boring moments."
"…And you don't call that overtime?"
Maruzensky laughed helplessly.
"I remember Oguri Cap saying you promised her you'd rest properly. Why are you still downloading races and studying opponents?"
"…Wait a second. Why do you think watching races automatically means research or work?"
Kitahara was even more surprised. He felt he hadn't understood Maruzensky's thinking—or rather, that she had misunderstood him.
So he turned the computer screen toward her and pointed at the race footage playing on it.
"You guys' races—I mean, horse girl races—aren't they exciting to watch in the first place?"
"When I watch them from a trainer's perspective during work, sure, that's overtime."
"But when I'm bored and just watching casually, isn't that relaxation?"
"I've thought about it, and Oguri Cap wasn't wrong."
"I work pretty diligently most of the time, right? So when I'm resting, can't I watch a few more races?"
"…Well, um… but still…"
Kitahara's explanation didn't seem to convince Maruzensky. Her expression became even more peculiar.
"A horse girl trainer treating horse girl races as a way to relax…"
"No matter how you put it, that sounds strange, doesn't it?"
"Alright, whatever. It fits your usual image anyway, so I'll let it go. What race are you watching?"
Deciding there was no point dwelling on Kitahara's "hobby," Maruzensky shifted her attention to the race footage.
After all, as a horse girl, she naturally had an interest in races.
"King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes."
[Oh yeah fun fact, Masquerade Ball, who finished very close to Calandagan the world's best horse is going to a Europe Campaign and race in King George. Its very interesting]
While continuing the download, Kitahara explained:
"G1 turf, 2400 meters. It just finished not long ago."
"The King George?"
Maruzensky froze for a moment, then showed a thoughtful expression.
"That sounds familiar… I feel like someone mentioned it…"
She frowned slightly, unable to recall where she'd heard it.
"Tony Bianca or Moonlight Lunacy."
Kitahara replied casually.
"They both said before that they'd be participating in this race."
"And that exchange meet at Epsom was originally preparation for this race."
"Especially Moonlight Lunacy—she was definitely going to participate."
The race itself wasn't long—only two or three minutes—but the footage Kitahara found was a complete recording of the entire day, several hours long, so it would take quite some time to download.
So he continued explaining to the now-enlightened Maruzensky:
"The venue for this race is Ascot, which was managed by the late husband of Duchess Lavinia. The duchess herself also attended King George VI's coronation."
"So no matter how you look at it, Moonlight Lunacy absolutely couldn't miss this race."
"Oh? Then that means the race must've been intense?"
Maruzensky's interest immediately rose.
"Who won? Moonlight Lunacy? Or Tony Bianca?"
"Uh… neither…"
The race on the screen hadn't finished yet, but Kitahara—having watched it many times—already knew the result.
"Mtoto. In Japan, I think it's translated as 'Toto.' Won by two lengths."
This horse girl wasn't mentioned in the game, but anyone familiar with horse racing—or who had played Derby Stallion—would absolutely not find the name unfamiliar.
Simply put, countless players who confidently brought Japanese-bred Triple Crown, undefeated horses to Europe had been utterly crushed by this horse.
Top-tier ratings across the board, no negative traits, overseas expedition bonus, explosive finishing kick, optimal distance—every buff maxed out.
Eclipse Stakes? King George? Arc de Triomphe? All mine!
Wait—Mtoto?!
Heart stops.
That was how powerful this horse was in history. And Tony Bianca's later rise to become Europe's Horse of the Year had a lot to do with her later victory over Mtoto in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
"That horse girl…"
Maruzensky looked a bit surprised, then pondered briefly.
"Alright, I've heard of her. If it was her, then winning this race isn't surprising at all."
"Yeah. Champion of last year's and this year's Eclipse Stakes—beating an opponent like that is extremely difficult."
After giving a brief evaluation, Kitahara sighed slightly.
"This time, Tony Bianca really pushed herself to the limit."
"Because in the post-race inspection, she was found to have a minor foot injury."
"At that level, losing is just unavoidable."
At this point, Kitahara was commenting entirely from a non-trainer mindset. He wasn't thinking in professional terms anymore.
And because of that, he suddenly remembered that he'd originally wanted to ask why Maruzensky had come back.
"Oh right, did you forget something here?"
"Huh? No, not really…"
Although she'd been focused on the race for a bit, Maruzensky hadn't forgotten her original purpose.
But when she spoke again about the initial topic, perhaps influenced by the race, she wasn't as enthusiastic anymore.
"I originally wanted to ask whether you'd like to take this chance during the hot spring trip to try touching Oguri Cap and the others' calves."
"I always feel like you're so serious all the time. Maybe pulling a little prank like this on you would help soften that old-man-like gloominess."
"But, well… sigh…"
She suddenly let out a sigh, spreading her hands helplessly.
"Judging from the fact that you even choose watching races as entertainment when relaxing, you're beyond saving."
"Just pretend I never said anything."
"Anyway, even if I played a prank on you, you'd probably just connect it to races or training."
(End of chapter)