While Su Luo was busy studying Jinnai Academy's shiny new "internationalization project," things over at the Central racecourses were anything but peaceful.
Following Oguri Cap's wonderfully bizarre post-Derby "love confession," yet another horse girl's post-race remarks had plunged the entire scene into confusion.
And that horse girl was none other than the winner of the Takarazuka Kinen—Tamamo Cross.
Right there on the Takarazuka Kinen track, Tamamo Cross faced the crowd filling the entire race venue and shouted in a loud, scolding voice:
"From what I see, all these Central horse girls are weak and pathetic!"
"Are the only true heroes in this world the horse girls from the regions?!"
"You lot have let us down!"
This round of Central-bashing, coming from a freshly crowned GⅠ champion, was like tossing a lit match into a powder keg. In an instant, public opinion ignited and spread across the entire racing world like wildfire.
"Bro, how do you end up with a GⅠ winner who looks down on Central horse girls?!"
"Exactly, isn't that self-contradictory? She is part of Central now too, isn't she…?"
"Speak for yourself! Tamamo Cross is the pride of Hokkaido, thank you very much!"
"This is insane, now even NAR's mutts think they can bark here."
"You're the insane one. I thought it was JRA's dogs that beat Tamamo, huh?"
For a while, the comment sections on every major media outlet were flooded with fake-fan trolling and mutual flame wars.
Tamamo Cross herself, however, didn't particularly care about any of this.
If anything, after this incident, the entire country's attention was drawn almost completely to her.
People started digging into Tamamo Cross—who she was, what kind of horse girl she was—trying to figure out what gave her the guts to say something like that.
Very soon, they discovered that behind Tamamo Cross stood a certain place called Jinnai Academy.
And when they took a closer look at Jinnai Academy… things only got weirder.
What do you mean this academy was on the verge of bankruptcy last year, and now it's suddenly one of Hokkaido's powerhouses?
Seriously?
There has to be a big capital hand behind this.
But who exactly was pushing Jinnai Academy to rise this fast, this hard?
Everyone had their own theory, and no one conclusion prevailed.
One thing was certain, though: at this particular moment in time, Jinnai Academy had officially stepped into the national spotlight…
"Jinnai Academy…"
Sitting in the student council office at Central Tracen Academy, Symboli Rudolf stared at the intelligence report in front of her, her expression twisted into a complicated frown.
She hadn't expected that, after Oguri Cap, Tamamo Cross would also take such an important Central race.
The words Su Luo had thrown at her that day still echoed in Symboli Rudolf's ears.
"Being disrespectful to the regions, huh…"
She traced circles over the printed words "Jinnai Academy" with her fingertip.
The JRA horse girl association had already begun pressuring her, demanding that she use her authority to tamp down the heat surrounding this whole affair.
After all, as the student council president of Central Tracen, Symboli Rudolf held tremendous power. Within the academy, the only one who might outrank her was Chairwoman Akikawa.
At the very least, if she wanted to, she could absolutely make this topic die down.
But Symboli Rudolf chose not to do so.
"If I step in just to suppress the momentum of a regional academy… wouldn't that only make Central Tracen look incompetent?"
Even though Oguri Cap's astonishing talent and Tamamo Cross's provocative victory had both shaken the Central to its core, in her heart, those might still be nothing more than sparks that happened to flare up in the wild.
Brilliant, yes—but hardly enough to set the whole forest ablaze.
The training system, research support, competition environment, and resource network that Central Tracen had accumulated over a hundred years were not something that one or two geniuses—nor one suddenly rising regional academy—could easily shake.
She acknowledged Su Luo's eye for talent and his methods. She also admitted that many regional horse girls possessed a tenacity and potential that had yet to be fully unearthed.
But that was still far from enough to make her waver in her conviction that "Central is the summit."
In her view, regional Tracen academies might occasionally produce a prodigy or two capable of breaking through the clouds, but they could not build a systematic, sustainable pipeline of the strong.
Without a tight, layered structure of talent, without deep foundations to support it, momentary brilliance looked more like a lucky exception than a stable new norm capable of changing the landscape.
Tamamo Cross's remarks, rather than a true challenge, sounded to her more like the one-sided denial of someone riled up by emotion—and that very emotional flare, in her eyes, only highlighted the gap between the regions and Central: invisible at a glance, yet very much real.
What she questioned wasn't whether the regions could produce another Oguri Cap or two, but whether such success had a reproducible path—whether it could truly evolve into a system that could stand against Central's overall strength.
Jinnai Academy's rise had been too fast, too abrupt. There might indeed be some mysterious patron behind it—but could a "miracle" like that really last?
And when the current frenzy faded, what would remain?
So even with the public outcry raging and the association pressing down from above, she chose to sit tight.
It wasn't out of respect or fear of the regions—it was the calm that came from absolute confidence, bordering on arrogance.
She believed Central's heritage was more than enough to digest all this noise. She believed that, in the end, time itself would prove that true strength never needed to trample others to make itself known.
The regions might have their possibilities.
But calling that a threat? That was still a long way off.
The future might belong to you.
But the present still belongs to us, the Central.
While Symboli Rudolf was pondering how to deal with Jinnai Academy, Su Luo, over on his side, successfully released the announcement that Jinnai Academy's international class was now open for enrollment.
Very soon, the principal sent him a compiled list of applicants.
That was Su Luo's request: he wanted to personally review the list of students for the international class.
He hadn't set this class up to make money. To avoid another "tragedy" like Oguri Cap and Tamamo Cross, Su Luo decided that this time he needed to be very careful in choosing which horse girls to admit.
This time, he was determined to pick out the weakest batch of students possible.
He skipped right past all the gray-coated foreign applicants.
Damn it, there was no way he was admitting another gray horse girl this time.
You learn from your scars, right?
If one of them turned out to be a big deal again, he'd be the one suffering in the end!
He specifically filtered for the ones who looked plain and unremarkable.
Suddenly, a name on the list caught his eye…
"Sunday Silence?"
"Quiet Sunday?"
"Just from the name alone, she doesn't sound very strong. Feels like one of those introverted literature-club girls. Not bad. Approved."
Black hair, golden eyes, and a thick, snowy white streak dyed through her bangs—she looked extremely quiet and refined, completely harmless.
Most importantly, she wasn't a gray horse girl.
Perfectly matched Su Luo's selection criteria.
"Heh heh, then you'll be the first student admitted."
In a great mood, Su Luo stamped the approval seal next to her name on the list.
This time, there's no way it backfires on me again… right?
....
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