"Who would have thought that what looked like a newborn foal yearning to run was actually a fine steed that had already galloped a thousand miles and still longed to race farther?"
Watching Urushihara Tōru storm off with Urara after signing the contract in a blaze of determination, Hayakawa Tazuna's face revealed a longing she had not felt in a very long time.
If only, back then, she too…
"Question."
Akiyama Yayoi flicked the paper fan bearing the words Chairwoman and asked in puzzlement,
"Tazuna, you don't trust him? You don't trust that 'Appraising Eye'?"
"Compared to an urban legend like the Appraising Eye, I trust that child's own effort much more. During his time in the trainer course, he showed unmatched passion and diligence. Did you know? There are only instructors from the trainer department in his phone contacts. He does not even have the numbers of his classmates. That means he gave up all unnecessary socializing in order to become a trainer."
Tazuna's gaze grew distant, as if she were recalling the first time she had noticed Urushihara Tōru.
In truth, it had only been last year that she first began paying attention to him.
On that day, Tracen's shining new star—Tokai Teio, who had been only one step away from an undefeated Triple Crown—officially announced her withdrawal from the Kikuka Sho.
After the Derby, Tokai Teio had been diagnosed with a fracture. Despite every possible effort, she ultimately had not recovered in time.
And Urushihara Tōru had stood before the news poster announcing her withdrawal, weeping bitterly.
It was not as though Tazuna had never seen Teio fans cry over such news before. But the depth of grief that child displayed was extraordinary, and it drew her attention at once.
That was when she started watching the boy who cried for horse girls.
Urushihara Tōru, a freshman in Central Tracen Academy's trainer course.
An orphan.
It seemed that he had made becoming a horse girl trainer the entirety of his life. Even while eating, he never once put down his books related to trainers.
Through that kind of effort, in the span of just one year, he broke through what was practically an insurmountable barrier: Central Tracen Academy's trainer certification exam.
And he had even graduated at the top of his class.
There was no doubt about it—Urushihara Tōru was a rising star destined to shine in the future.
As for the rumors of an "Appraising Eye," to Hayakawa Tazuna, they were merely proof of the child's hard-earned efforts.
Even Tazuna herself could do something similar, to some extent.
Whenever she laid eyes on a truly exceptional child, an irresistible urge to run would stir within her heart.
And Haru Urara had not given her that feeling…
Because she believed in her instincts more than anyone, Hayakawa Tazuna was certain that this time, the boy's so-called "Appraising Eye" had failed.
Which made his choice of Urara rather delicate.
"After all, the special-admission system at Central Tracen was created after Student Council President Symboli Rudolf proposed the ideal of 'building a world where every horse girl can be happy.' It is, at its core, a salvation system for horse girls whose abilities are not sufficient to enter Central on merit alone, but who possess special gifts in other areas."
There was a trace of regret in Tazuna's voice.
"You know this as well as I do, Chairwoman. A G-rank trainer can only sign one horse girl in a year. To let a future star who shattered the record for the Tracen trainer certification exam waste that precious one and only chance on a 'special-admission' student like this—that is a serious waste of personnel resources."
"Absurd."
Akiyama Yayoi shook her head. Her deep blue eyes seemed almost to look beyond the walls of the chairwoman's office, as though she were gazing at the two figures in the distance.
"After seeing how brightly those two children were looking at each other, do you truly have the courage to say they are not suited for one another?"
"…"
Tazuna fell silent.
In the end, had she not also been someone who had originally intended to persuade Trainer Urushihara to give up, only to be drawn in by those sparkling eyes and find herself unconsciously accepting his conviction?
"Confused."
Tilting her head, Akiyama Yayoi said,
"Tazuna, you keep saying you trust that trainer. Yet are you, in fact, the one who trusts him the least?"
"How could that possibly be?!"
Tazuna refuted the idea on instinct, but the moment she realized her own actions did indeed carry that implication, she fell silent once more.
"Sorry."
Into that brief silence, Akiyama Yayoi waved her hand.
"That was a rather mean thing for me to say. But why not believe that trainer can create a future with Urara beyond anything anyone could imagine? If it is a waste for a G-rank trainer to sign only one horse girl, then he simply needs to rank up, doesn't he? After all, the conditions for advancing from G-rank to F-rank are not actually that difficult."
According to Central Tracen's regulations, there were usually two paths for a G-rank trainer to be promoted to F-rank.
The first was simple: after holding a G-rank license for one year, as long as they had not been dismissed or quit on their own, they would naturally advance to F-rank.
More than half of all trainers rose to F-rank that way.
The second path was for the trainer's horse girl to win her debut race.
Do not be fooled into thinking that condition sounded easy.
A debut race usually had anywhere from six or seven runners to as many as eleven or twelve.
Only one horse girl could win.
And a G-rank trainer could sign only one horse girl per year.
Once a horse girl lost her debut race, she could only move on to winless-class races.
And even if she won there, it still would not be enough to promote her trainer out of G-rank.
That was why saying only one in ten trainers advanced through this route was no exaggeration at all.
Of course, there were exceptions.
For instance, if a horse girl lost her debut race but later went on to win a graded stakes race, that too could earn her trainer a promotion.
After all, a graded-stakes victory clearly carried more weight than a debut-race victory.
But a horse girl capable of winning a graded stakes race was not just one in ten.
She was one in hundreds, or even one in thousands.
"But…"
Tazuna hesitated.
The reason was simple: what she was about to say next was too cruel.
The horse girl named Haru Urara, even among special-admission students, displayed ability at a level that could only be described as painfully poor.
If she was lucky, she might sometimes come in second or third.
Most of the time, she would hover around fourth or fifth in winless-class races.
For her, victory itself could almost be called miraculous.
That was Hayakawa Tazuna's assessment of Haru Urara's ability as a horse girl.
Even Urushihara Tōru, surely, would find it difficult to lead a horse girl like that to victory in her debut race.
"Reflection."
Akiyama Yayoi suddenly burst into laughter.
"Have you spent so long away from that patch of grass that you've forgotten how to run?"
"A trainer, by definition, is someone who leads their horse girl in challenging every so-called impossibility and creating miracles."
"If the outcome is already decided from the start, then why do horse girls run? Why do they strive? Why do they throw themselves, full of fighting spirit and hope, into a youth woven from sweat and tears?"
"This Central Tracen Academy has been running on 'what is only natural' for far too long. It is about time we got something a little less 'ordinary.'"
"Whether the Appraising Eye is real or merely a legend makes no difference to me. I am willing to believe in that trainer. A trainer who can say, with eyes shining like that, 'Believe in the Urara who believes in me'—there is no way someone like that could be a problem."
With those words, Akiyama Yayoi lifted her head and looked out the window.
Outside, the sunlight was perfect.
A young trainer, his face still carrying a trace of boyishness, was holding the hand of a pink-haired horse girl with a radiant smile as the two of them stepped out from the shadows at the exit and into the light.
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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