Shinji Terizumi roared at the top of his lungs, the veins in his neck bulging from the force of it.
On the track, King Halo struggled. For a fleeting instant, her body—already starting to hunch over—seemed on the verge of correcting itself under her desperate effort, only to collapse again in the next moment.
With a heavy thud, she crashed into the sand.
It was not that King Halo was so exhausted she could no longer run. The problem was that Shinji's demands on her posture were simply too exacting. In her panic, she lost her balance completely and fell flat.
"Get up now! Don't stop!"
Knowing this was the crucial moment for her body to develop proper muscle memory, Shinji's voice only grew louder, and King Halo dared not slack off.
Offside Trap ran past her, her face drenched in sweat. At this point, she did not even have the energy to spare for facial expressions. The weights strapped to her body felt familiar enough, but if she remembered correctly, carrying them this way should not have had especially good results.
Even so, Shinji had ordered it—and had even said this method suited her best.
Was that his way of praising her, of saying she was different from other horse girls? No wonder he had chosen her in the first place.
She had no idea that, thanks to the effect of the Vassal Lord bond, she had long since become nothing more than a stat-farming machine in Shinji's eyes. Compared to the amount of thought he had to put into King Halo, who had just staggered back to her feet, Offside Trap's training barely required any creative effort at all.
Watching King Halo force herself upright again, Shinji's voice rolled over the field in wave after wave.
"Stabilize your balance first. Remember this: first increase your stride length. Once you've found your maximum stride, then try to increase your cadence. Cadence reflects your breathing. I already told you last time—your breathing and cadence are always linked. That means increasing stride length takes priority."
King Halo could only nod weakly. Correcting her posture was clearly a painful process, but she had no choice except to grit her teeth and do it.
She stretched her steps wider. Every so often she had to make tiny adjustments, or else one misstep would send her skidding clear off the track. But every correction threw off her rhythm again, and with the sudden disruptions to her cadence came jagged changes in her breathing. Her lungs felt so hot they almost burned.
And still, Shinji had not said the one word she longed to hear.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Narita Brian, who was being thoroughly tormented on the training apparatus. Brian's hands were clenched hard around the handrails as the gale-force wind blasted her from front to back, tilting her entire body sideways.
King Halo did not dare look directly at her face. She was afraid she might laugh.
That twisted, distorted posture—King Halo was certain she would laugh every single time she saw it.
At last, Shinji fell silent for a moment. He picked up his water bottle and took a sip, then looked at King Halo as she passed in front of him.
He smacked his lips on purpose. The sound of the water rolling in his mouth made the girl in front of him stiffen ever so slightly, just as he had predicted. The system prompt sounded in his head.
[Negative emotion +50]
"Oh man, this water's good."
[Negative emotion +60]
A wicked smile appeared on Shinji's face—then he immediately wiped it away and barked with sudden severity:
"King Halo! Don't lose focus!"
[Negative emotion +20]
King Halo bit her lip. She had thought she was hiding it well, but somehow he had still noticed that part of her attention had drifted toward the water bottle in his hand.
Satisfied by the resentful, tragic look on her face, Shinji nodded and strolled over to Narita Brian.
Still being battered by the violent wind to the point that her arms were going numb, Narita Brian looked at him as if she were seeing her savior descend from heaven.
Then she watched him reach for the control switch and turn the wind up another level.
A question mark practically appeared over her head.
She wanted to say something, but the now even stronger blast shoved the words right back down her throat. Her body lifted like a dead leaf in a storm before slamming heavily onto the mat again.
Shinji shook his head without saying a word, yet somehow conveyed everything he meant. Narita Brian bit her lower lip.
[Negative emotion +50]
…
Watching King Halo doubled over and retching, Offside Trap was breathing hard herself. If she eased off even a little, the raw, burning sensation rising from her lungs told her she would not stay on her feet much longer either.
"Xiao Yue."
"Hm?"
"Say the name of your first race this year."
"Mm…"
"Speak!"
"The Dubai Shei—blegh—"
Now both girls were bent over on the ground. Shinji's gaze drifted toward Narita Brian. She was filthy with dust, thoroughly miserable to look at, but her breathing still was not all that ragged.
To Shinji's surprise, he felt a flicker of disappointment.
Wait. Why am I disappointed?
[You're asking me?]
He thought this was not good. How could he possibly be hoping to see his trainees throwing up?
His training had always been fair. He did not structure it just to make them puke.
After all, he was hardly some villain who maliciously increased their workload just because they had stayed up late and shown up sleep-deprived.
No—his goal was rapid improvement. It was only because the girls had not yet adapted to such intensity that they ended up vomiting.
Watching King Halo slowly push herself upright again, Shinji saw pale traces of vomit splashed across her body. Her face was deathly white.
She could not stand seeing herself like this. Yet Shinji already ranked far too high in her heart, and the contradiction and humiliation left her unable to speak.
"Halo."
"Yes, sir."
"Wipe yourself down."
He was just about to apply the Crimson Bloodstain to her, and frankly, Shinji did not want to go near a girl with that kind of mess still on her.
She clearly caught the disgust in his eyes, and a wave of grievance welled up inside her.
As if she wanted to be covered in something this filthy. Hadn't she only ended up like this because she had genuinely been working herself to the bone?
Were not the truly great trainers supposed to share hardship and joy with their girls alike? When their trainees got filthy from practice, weren't they supposed to stand by them gently and wipe them clean with their own hands?
The resentment in King Halo's gaze was completely undisguised.
Shinji pretended not to see it.
Only after she had wiped the mess away did he finally walk over to her, taking a wet wipe from his pocket.
King Halo never imagined that after all her bitter mental complaining, her trainer would really come over and do it himself. Her face flushed red at once.
"You're not wearing makeup, right?"
A question mark flashed across her mind.
Before she could understand what he meant, the wet wipe was already plastered across her face.
The force was anything but light. Her nose stung, and the soreness made her eyes start to water. She wanted to tell him to be gentler, but his rough, forceful motions—like he meant to scrub everything off her face except the features themselves—never gave her the chance to get a word in.
"Mmph… mm…"
[Negative emotion +40]
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 142)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter181)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter103)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter192)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 173
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 166
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 110
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 190
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 165
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 156
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 81
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 102
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 120
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 80
Uma Musume: I Want All 95
I Can Copy Unique Skills 84
Summoning an Evil God, but the 66
Supernatural Multiverse 83
My Harem Is Indescribable 75
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 81
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 75
Still playing traditional Honk 55
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 60
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 55
Checking In in Demon Slayer 60
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 65
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 35
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 35
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 39
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 58
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