Several more days passed.
Great Britain International Airport.
A passenger plane roared into the clouds, flying toward the Far East.
At the boarding gate, four stunning girls, each with her own distinctive charm, stood there gazing into the distance.
The silver-haired, heterochromatic uma musume was filled with reluctance, her eyes fixed tightly on the plane as it gradually shrank into a tiny dot.
Beside her, Maruzensky and Mejiro McQueen both let out a breath of relief at almost the same time.
Of course, they were reluctant to see their Trainer leave too.
But they had already passed the stage of fresh, passionate romance.
They did not have Folkqueen's restless unease, the kind that came from finally tasting sweetness only to be forced apart just as she was beginning to crave more.
"I almost got dragged back by Luna to work overtime..." Maruzensky looked up at the sky and shook her head helplessly.
It was not that she was unwilling to help Symboli Rudolf with work.
When she occasionally had free time, she had lent a hand several times before.
But Symboli Rudolf's seriousness toward work was truly hard to withstand.
Her schedule was packed without a single gap.
And if Kuroha was not around, even the time for a cup of tea would be seized to discuss report details.
Lately, there had even been signs of it getting worse.
Maruzensky did not dislike helping out, but it was not as if she had suddenly become an uma musume who loved working.
Naturally, she could not take it.
Beside her, McQueen quietly let out a relieved sigh in her heart.
Thankfully, Folkqueen had been left in Europe by the Trainer.
Otherwise, during this period, she would not even have been able to find someone for practical race-pace training.
Though she considered herself no weaker than anyone else, the uma musume named Shuwu had been taken seriously by the Trainer, which meant there had to be a reason.
So even if the improvement was nearly imperceptible, she had to seize it firmly in her hands.
As for Godolphin...
At this moment, she was resting her chin on one hand, her face thoughtful.
The intuition of a goddess gave her a faint, inexplicable premonition.
"Kuroha-kun isn't going to bring back another child this time, is he?"
...
While the uma musume of Chasing Light each had their own thoughts, ten thousand meters up in the sky, Kuroha sat alone in first class and stretched for the first time in a while, feeling relaxed from head to toe.
Because of Godolphin's "night-raid plan," Folkqueen, who had given him a fierce challenge once, had become especially clingy over the past few days.
As a result, his planned return home had been delayed by several days.
Still, it did not interfere with anything important.
Thinking back on how the New Zealand girl, who had once been cool and proudly aloof, had become so inseparably attached to him over the past few days, Kuroha could not help shaking his head with a faint laugh.
He took out his phone and looked at the "I'm coming back" message he had sent to all his uma musume before boarding, then nodded in satisfaction.
After that, he closed his eyes and prepared to take a short nap.
An unknown amount of time later, the sea of clouds outside the window dispersed, and the familiar scenery of the Far East gradually expanded in his field of view.
The plane landed smoothly.
The place where it touched down was somewhere he knew extremely well: Narita International Airport.
After that, naturally, came the standard procedure.
The people who came to receive him were still staff from the Association.
Then came official language, praise, and small talk.
Only when Kuroha walked out of the airport lobby did several familiar, beautiful figures enter his sight.
"Yo, you're back? Our great Trainer?"
Beside a dazzling red sports car, a heroic beauty with crescent-shaped bangs wore casual clothes and greeted Kuroha with a light smile.
"Trainer~"
Before Kuroha could respond, Fujimasa March and Mejiro Ardan happily came up to him, one on each side, and hugged his arms.
"March, Ardan. You two came to pick me up?"
Kuroha smiled and wanted to pat their heads, but both his arms were held tightly, leaving him unable to move them for the moment.
He could only shake his head helplessly, then looked at the heroic figure ahead of him and said with a light laugh, "Luna, why are you here too?"
"What? Am I not allowed to come?" Symboli Rudolf raised an eyebrow and teased him.
"That's not it."
Kuroha walked closer, then swept a strange look over the sports car.
"This is... Maruzensky's car, right? How did you end up driving it?"
"With my relationship with Maruzensky, what's wrong with borrowing a car?"
Symboli Rudolf opened the door and slid into the driver's seat, then rolled down the window with a smile. "Come on. Let's head back to the academy first."
...
On the expressway, the red sports car raced along like the wind.
Inside the car, Symboli Rudolf looked at the rearview mirror, the corner of her mouth twitching despite herself. She gave a light cough and said, "Would the three people in the back please mind your surroundings? I am still here."
At this moment, the front passenger seat beside her was completely empty.
Kuroha had been pulled into the back seat by his two uma musume, and the three of them were pressed tightly together, occasionally whispering a few words to each other.
They were laughing happily.
What a trio of disgustingly lovey-dovey normies.
For some reason, Symboli Rudolf felt a bit irritated.
And for some inexplicable reason, her stomach felt a little full too, even though she had not eaten lunch yet.
Hearing Symboli Rudolf's complaint, the three of them sat up properly with some embarrassment.
Mejiro Ardan brushed the hair beside her ear back, tilted her head, and corrected her.
"President, we're not a couple. We're best friends~"
"..."
The "Emperor" was left badly choked, feeling as though the light bulb over her head was shining brighter and brighter.
Seeing Symboli Rudolf suffer a rare defeat, Kuroha could not help letting out a soft laugh.
Then, out of habit, he reached out and smoothed March's hair beside him, then pinched her little cheek.
The gray-haired girl had originally been trying to keep a straight face in front of others.
But after Kuroha stroked her hair for a while, she narrowed her eyes in comfort, looking as if she were enjoying herself immensely.
Once their reunion talk was over, Kuroha moved to the main topic.
"Come to think of it, a few days ago, you mentioned over the phone that Sunday Silence had disappeared. How was that handled afterward?"
Hearing that they had finally stopped showing off their affection, Symboli Rudolf let out a breath of relief, and her tone returned to seriousness.
"How else could it be handled? It was left unresolved."
"After all, the airport surveillance footage and other evidence were all complete. Sunday Silence really did not get off the plane in the Far East. She vanished into thin air while she was still on the plane."
"But later, I heard that Chairwoman Akikawa personally made the decision to compensate Sunday Silence's team and family with a considerable sum of money."
"As for anything more specific, I'm not too clear on the details. After all, it counts as an Association scandal, and it has nothing to do with the academy's internal affairs."
The Chairwoman?
Hearing that, Kuroha asked with some confusion, "Shouldn't this matter have been negotiated between the uma musume associations of the two countries? Why did Chairwoman Akikawa step forward?"
Symboli Rudolf's gaze darkened slightly as she said, "Sunday Silence seems to have been an old acquaintance of Chairwoman Akikawa."
"The Chairwoman admired this junior of hers very much. That was why she personally invited her to stay at Central long-term."
"But who could have known that something like a 'spiriting away' would happen along the way?"
Spiriting away.
In this island nation of the Far East, the phrase was usually used to refer to mysterious incidents where someone's whereabouts became unknown due to the influence of supernatural forces.
Clearly, all of Central Tracen had already classified Sunday Silence's disappearance as a supernatural phenomenon.
"So she was the Chairwoman's friend despite the age gap..."
Kuroha frowned slightly, then thought of something. "Then do Darley and the others know about this?"
"The day after I told you, I went to ask the goddesses about it," Symboli Rudolf said helplessly.
This concerned the life and death of an uma musume. Even though she respected the Three Goddesses deeply, she would never be careless at a time like this.
"What did they say?"
"Lady Darley and Lady Byerley said Sunday Silence is not currently in mortal danger. Her condition is just a little strange."
"They said their current power cannot resolve it, and they have to wait for you to return before it can be handled."
So they had found her.
After hearing Symboli Rudolf's account, Kuroha nodded in understanding.
If they had not found Sunday Silence herself, the Three Goddesses naturally would not have been able to confirm her specific condition.
Though he was somewhat surprised by the claim that it "had to wait until he returned before it could be handled," the two goddesses would never speak without reason.
In any case, once he returned home and met them, everything would naturally come to light.
(End of Chapter)
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