Wuyou was carried off over someone's shoulder like a bandit hauling away a kidnapped bride…
After being jostled around for what felt like forever, this "kidnapper" finally set him down in a quiet, secluded spot and pulled the sack off his body.
"O ho ho ho ho Young man, you're safe now"
Wuyou felt around for what he was sitting on. Slightly cool, a little rough—seemed like steps.
He shook his head, wiped his face with both hands, and said, "Enough, Gold Ship… you think I haven't figured out it's you already?"
All units, attention!
Right now, standing in front of Wuyou was—
Treisen Academy's most vicious delinquent horse, the weirdo who sticks her tongue out anywhere and everywhere, the Venusian creature of urban legends, the legendary unsinkable ship, the most mischievous bloodline of the Gold clan, a peerless beauty when she keeps her mouth shut, a street-roaming punk with a mysteriously unknown grade level, the academy's eighth mystery on top of the seven wonders, a girl whose only weakness is her eyes, the undisputed queen of doing-whatever-she-wants—
GOLD SHIP!
"Huh? So I got found out after all?" Gold Ship sounded utterly unfazed, like she'd expected it.
"In all of Treisen, who else would pull something like this besides you?" Wuyou snapped.
"Hehe Don't praise me like that I'll get full of myself~" Gold Ship replied without the slightest shame.
Wuyou could only let out a long, helpless sigh.
Fair is fair—calling Gold Ship beautiful wasn't an exaggeration at all.
Her snow-white long hair glittered under the sunlight. She was tall—tall enough to even edge past Rudolf by a little.
And with that height, her physique was so well-proportioned it felt unfair.
If she kept quiet, seen from afar, her looks and bearing were exactly that of a poised aristocratic young lady.
But the more noble her appearance, the more outrageous the contrast became—because the bratty chaos inside her was that extreme.
Still, matching that chaos was a truly astonishing talent for racing.
That "weirdo horse" attribute meant she could chat with almost anyone… yet when it came to choosing a trainer, her standards were brutally picky. No one had ever really caught her eye.
Until Wuyou showed up back then…
No one knew how, but he hit Gold Ship's "type" with surgical precision—so perfectly it was almost obscene.
From that day on, it was like the two of them were tied together by an absurdly thick red string, coiled tight like a giant python—still tangled up even now.
Just imagine the scene…
You've just finished a full day of training with Rudolf and you're so exhausted you can barely open your eyes.
You finally get home, collapse onto the bed… open your eyes…
And there's a white-haired mare plastered to your ceiling like some "failed man" horror movie creature…
You ask her, "How did you get in?"
And she answers, "When I come to kidnap you, I hope you'll say 'thank you' instead of asking how I got in."
Then she throws a sack over you and launches you into an unannounced "wilderness survival" experience.
Even more "thoughtful" than that—she'll even deliver you back to Treisen before dawn so you can clock in on time…
Every time he remembered those incidents, Wuyou felt genuine despair.
To this day, he still couldn't figure out what, exactly, he'd done to press Gold Ship's buttons in the first place.
Was it because he'd been curious whether the Three Goddess Statue really had mystical power, so he'd climbed up and publicly felt it up and down?
Was that so weird?
"Gold Ship… what are you pulling this time?" Wuyou asked, rubbing his throbbing temples.
"Can't help it! Ever since you came back, you never come see me! Little Gold Ship so lonely waaahhhh~!"
Gold Ship's acting kicked into overdrive. She pinched her voice into a toddler-like sob, theatrically bawling.
She even forced out a few tears.
And annoyingly enough… it worked very well on Wuyou.
After coming back to Treisen, he really had been deliberately avoiding Gold Ship because he didn't want trouble. As a friend, that was… admittedly not great.
So he apologized cleanly. "Sorry, Little Gold Ship. I didn't think about how you'd feel."
"Waaahhhh~ If apologies worked, what would we need Horse-Jump Police for?!"
"…What the hell is 'Horse-Jump Police'?"
"Waaahhhh You don't care about me anymore I'm calling Horse-Jump Police I'll get a fine steed to bite you!"
"H-Hey, stop it, stop it! Fine, whatever you want, I'll agree, okay?!"
"Yeah yeah Yuyou is the beeeest~~"
...
Meanwhile…
Both Mr. C.B.'s and Orfevre's fan clubs had entered a collective state of confusion.
The two groups were actually standing side by side for once… simply because their idols were walking side by side.
Mr. C.B. was idly playing with Wuyou's cane, her eyes flashing with surprise.
She hadn't expected it to have some weight to it—and compared to being a mobility aid… she'd apparently discovered a new use for it.
With the tip tapping the floor, she improvised a little tap-dance routine. Then, in one smooth motion, she lifted the white little top hat from her head and bowed elegantly to the screaming fans behind her, earning an explosion of excited shrieks.
"I think I get why Wuyou likes using it like a cane," Mr. C.B. said with a smile, weighing it in her hand. "The feel is really good!"
Orfevre glanced at the cane in Mr. C.B.'s hand, faintly displeased.
If she'd known it was this fun… cough—if she'd known it was this important, she should've ignored Gold Ship's note and grabbed the cane first.
Something this good… cough cough… should be my treasure.
Orfevre clearly didn't want to watch Mr. C.B. "play with it" (read: show off) any longer, so she asked, "By the way… is that little kitty really blind?"
Mr. C.B. nodded, holding back laughter.
She was now thoroughly enjoying how surprised people looked whenever they realized Wuyou was actually blind. To her, the reactions were oddly entertaining.
(Conveniently forgetting she'd reacted the same way at first.)
"Mm… if that's true, then my little kitty really is special," Orfevre murmured.
"Um… could you maybe stop calling Wuyou 'little kitty'?" Mr. C.B. sighed.
"Why not?" Orfevre replied, as if the question itself were ridiculous.
"Everything in this world belongs to me. One day, Wuyou will understand which sovereign he ought to serve."
The air seemed to freeze.
The onlookers held their breath—some even took an unconscious step back.
Mr. C.B. was silent for a moment.
Then she smiled.
Not the polite smile from earlier, but something sharper—almost flamboyantly bold.
"Then try it," she said, lifting a hand to tap lightly against her own chest.
"But before that, remember this—the one standing beside him right now is me."
The moment her words landed, she stepped back half a pace, opening distance.
Crisp. Clean. Like the earlier tension had been a hallucination.
Orfevre stared at her. The dangerous gleam in her eyes slowly settled into something deeper—something like genuine interest.
"…Interesting." In the end, she spat out just three words, and before turning away, left one last line: "Next time on the track, I'll win—and take him with it."
Mr. C.B. watched her departing back until that flash of gold disappeared down the corridor, then finally let out a quiet breath.
Her ears drooped slightly—then snapped upright again.
"Honestly…" she muttered, the corners of her mouth lifting despite herself. "Wuyou, you'd better compensate me properly later."
...
And meanwhile, Wuyou…
"Yeah yeah peace! Peace!"
Gold Ship had Wuyou sitting in her lap, both hands grabbing his arms as she posed and jostled him like a beloved doll—freely "playing" with his body however she pleased.
Wuyou didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but since he'd already agreed to her demands, he could only let her do whatever she wanted.
"Hm? Why aren't you smiling, Yuyou? You don't like smiling?" Gold Ship asked.
"…Do you really think someone can smile while being treated like a toy?" Wuyou shot back.
"Eh? What's the problem? It's not like I haven't played with you before, Yuyou"
"…Can you not phrase it like that?" he begged.
He helplessly realized that the Umamusume around him all seemed to love dialogue loaded with innuendo.
But in the end, he wasn't actually angry.
Gold Ship looked like she was missing a screw—no, maybe she only had one screw to begin with.
Yet she did have a sense of boundaries. Her movements were even… gentle. Somewhere in it, there was faintly a motherly aura, like a Little Harbor kind of vibe.
Could Gold Ship, unexpectedly, be suited to being a mom someday?
No no no! What kind of nightmare fantasy is that?!
Seeing Wuyou suddenly go quiet, then suddenly shake his head in her arms, Gold Ship laughed and flicked at the ponytail near his shoulder.
"By the way, Yuyou—how have the last two years been? You don't look so healthy. Can you still go on adventures with Little Gold Ship?"
That sudden concern warmed Wuyou's heart.
So she really did care about him.
"It should be okay… um—actually, I think not. Please spare me."
He caught himself mid-sentence and changed course. This felt like the perfect chance to escape "adventures"!
"Great! Then that means you're still fine! Little Gold Ship and Yuyou's Grand Adventure: Chapter Two is about to begin!"
"..."
Wuyou silently retracted the emotion he'd just felt.
She didn't treat him like a disabled person.
She didn't even treat him like a person.
Still… even now, Wuyou wanted to struggle one last time.
"Gold Ship, my body's already like this… can't you let me off the hook?"
"Huh? But aren't you a fairy, Yuyou? If you have fairy power, you should be fine, right?"
"…Hah?"
....
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