By the time Teraizumi Shinji and King Halo reached the mock race venue from the team lounge, they could already see the crowd that had gathered.
There were trainers everywhere.
Based on Shinji's rough sense of how many trainers the academy had in total, at least half of them had come today.
He glanced at King Halo in surprise.
He had never bothered to investigate exactly what had happened between her and all those trainers back then. He had only heard that her pride had, in one way or another, belittled quite a few of them. She had never meant it that way, but the sharpness hidden in her words had, undeniably, cut into those trainers who lacked ability.
No wonder there was so much criticism of King Halo among the trainer community. When Kuro-numa had mentioned it to him that morning, Shinji had even thought the big man might have been exaggerating.
The trainers naturally noticed them too. Some turned their faces away, hiding their expressions and their eyes. Others made no effort to conceal their disdain—or their mockery. Back before King Halo's debut, her performances in mock races had already led quite a few trainers to predict that her Classic year would end in utter failure.
The facts had proven them right. King Halo's flaws were obvious, and in actual races, fatal.
King Halo's expression shifted. The nervousness that had been sitting in her chest turned into something tighter, heavier. Those worries seemed to coil around her heart, until even her legs felt light and unstable.
Then Shinji, as expected, lightly patted her on the shoulder before walking straight toward the infield.
To be honest, even if he was now the trainer of Japan's first Autumn Triple Crown winner, so what? His record was still thin, and his seniority wasn't high. There was every chance people would write him off as the sort of trainer who could only ever produce one GI-caliber horse girl. History had seen plenty of those.
So as he passed those people, he could still hear the whispers—casual, unhidden, spoken as though they were simply chatting among themselves.
"So there really is a trainer willing to take in the current King Halo, huh? Arrogant as hell, and brainless on the track."
"No kidding. She's probably just panicking because her Classic year went so badly. But what's the point of finding a trainer now?"
Those voices reached them clearly, and King Halo's face turned a shade paler.
She had heard harsher things before. Long before she ever debuted, when she had walked out alone onto the field, when she had shouted at the entire crowd that she would become a first-rate horse girl, she had already endured more cold mockery than she could count.
But now, those words had begun to involve Teraizumi Shinji as well.
Her trainer—her own chosen trainer, the one who had only proven more and more over time that her choice had been right—was now being dragged into it too.
Her fists clenched.
If not for the hand gripping her wrist, she might have stormed right over and confronted them.
"Calm down first. If you do anything irrational out there, I'm not going to spare your pride."
Shinji's warning made King Halo take a deep breath, forcing down the anger boiling inside her.
Her gaze shifted instead to the opponents already gathered on the track.
She would win this mock race.
That was how she would repay her trainer.
Once they descended the last of the steps, King Halo's eyes landed on the girl who had already finished her warm-up. The other horse girl's stare was sharp, full of ambition.
The intent to use King Halo as a stepping stone wasn't hidden in the slightest.
That naked competitive will, that fighting spirit blazing straight out of her eyes—
King Halo bent forward slightly.
This time, Shinji did not soothe her, nor did he stop her. This was something she would have to face eventually. In the real races to come, she would encounter countless situations like this—or worse—things that would prod at her nerves and stir up her sensitivities.
She had to learn to overcome them.
She had to learn, in the middle of all that, how to stay rational. How to stay calm.
The girl serving as the finish-line judge was already in position. The starting gates were set up at the opening point as well.
A 2000-meter distance.
Since King Halo's distance aptitude stretched comfortably from sprint distances to middle-long distances, Shinji had enjoyed much more flexibility in selecting a mock race for her.
His eyes returned to her. She was stretching now.
"You're a little late, aren't you?"
The voice that sounded beside him made Shinji turn in surprise—straight into Hayakawa Tazuna's gaze. The secretary's smile was gentle, but Shinji was even more puzzled as to why she had shown up for what was supposed to be an ordinary mock race.
Apparently noticing his confusion, she answered before he even asked.
A long, jade-like finger extended, pointing toward the horse girl whose momentum on the field was practically overflowing.
That was exactly why Shinji had chosen this race.
Erimo Daring—the previous year's Oaks winner.
"The old chairwoman seems to have some sort of connection to her, so I came to take a look," Tazuna said. Then, as though recalling something, she leaned close to Shinji's ear. "She accepted another Three Goddesses blessing yesterday. So King Halo's under quite a bit of pressure today."
Hearing that, Shinji merely gave a careless shrug.
Receiving a blessing at this point was hardly a wise choice. The whole point of a mock race was supposed to be checking how well training translated into actual race execution and adaptation.
Just as Shinji himself cared far less about whether King Halo won this mock race in what fashion or by what margin than he did about whether this emotionally fragile girl could withstand all the pressure and anxiety around her and still carry out what she was supposed to do.
Seeing what he was thinking, Tazuna smiled faintly.
One of the things she had always admired about Teraizumi Shinji was this: he had strong opinions, but he was never blindly stubborn or arrogant.
And even better, he always seemed able to apply that balance to the right places.
"Shinji."
"Hm?"
"Do you have any thoughts about the Osaka Hai being upgraded?"
Shinji blinked. "Upgraded to what?"
Tazuna puffed out her cheeks and lightly flicked his forehead.
"You never read the notices sent to trainers. Osaka Hai was upgraded this year."
"I see." Shinji nodded. That really was huge news for the academy. "Congratulations, then. Shame I don't have a horse girl suited for it. Otherwise I'd have liked to enter, see if we could take the very first GI Osaka Hai."
His answer made Tazuna tilt her head.
She knew Offside Trap would be overseas by then, so of course Dubai meant she'd miss the Osaka Hai. But still—
"What about her?"
Following her gesture toward King Halo, Shinji smiled and shook his head.
"She still needs polishing. A GI is still a little far off for her right now."
"A little far off, hm?" Tazuna didn't argue, though some regret still lingered in her voice. "After Autumn Triple Crown, now there'll be a Spring Triple Crown too."
From the way she said it, it sounded as though she was already hoping for the birth of a Spring Triple Crown horse girl in the very first year after the Osaka Hai's elevation.
That made Shinji want to laugh.
She was being greedy.
The span and difficulty of the Spring Triple Crown far exceeded the Autumn one. Shinji didn't even need to witness a full challenge firsthand to know that it would be far harder to achieve.
So he only replied with a light smile.
"That won't be easy."
Tazuna did not continue, and the two of them wordlessly let the topic drop, their attention shifting back to the participants now approaching the gates.
All around them, gazes converged. At last, the whispers stopped.
Of course those people were eager to see the result they wanted. Precisely because of that, they were just as worried that things might go very differently.
Tazuna could feel the tension in the venue, and a trace of worry flickered in her eyes.
Teraizumi Shinji had said that the outcome of a mock race did not matter.
But just like what Offside Trap had once gone through, words would never change just because you wanted them to.
The direction those judgments would take now rested entirely on the shoulders of the girl who had already stepped into the gate.
Would she crush that scorn beneath her feet—
or feed it?
This horse girl, whose recruitment Tazuna herself had helped along more than once, was now standing behind her new starting gate, at the very first fork in the road of the future she had chosen for herself.
And where Shinji could not see, Tazuna's fingers slowly tangled together.
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
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 42
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin