Seiun Sky stretched lazily and glanced up at the crowd of trainers in the stands, looking more than a little baffled. She had only signed up for a practice race to get a feel for things and prepare for this year's campaign, so why had it drawn so many spectators?
Before long, her eyes returned to the track.
Though she always carried herself with that lazy, carefree air, anyone who knew Seiun Sky well understood that she was sharp as a tack. After only a brief moment of thought, she was already sure these trainers hadn't come for her.
The answer had to be somewhere on the track.
There weren't many girls entered in this mock race. The one capable of attracting this many trainers stood out immediately.
"King Halo…?"
That so-called genius of her generation. True, she had never captured a G1, but in the G1s she had run, she had occasionally shown flashes that were hard to ignore. She no longer looked anything like the overwhelming prodigy she had been before entering the middle division, but she was still, by any fair measure, one of the stronger racers of their generation.
Seiun Sky's deepest impression of her came from the Derby, when King Halo had suddenly rushed to the front right after the start and completely destroyed Seiun Sky's pacing. Strictly speaking, Seiun Sky probably could have reacted with more composure, but the situation had been too abrupt. King Halo had opened the race in a way no one had expected, and Seiun Sky, who prided herself on her judgment, had ended up getting swallowed by the pack and vanishing without a trace.
The ones who understood a racer's strength best were often her rivals, and Seiun Sky was no exception. No matter what else might be said, she would admit that King Halo was absolutely a capable horse girl.
"Didn't she just run a mock race not that long ago?"
Scratching her head, she muttered to herself in puzzlement. If she remembered right, Grass Wonder had mentioned it casually over lunch at some point.
"I wonder how much she's adjusted since then. What a pain…"
Even thinking about it made Seiun Sky want to yawn.
With that, she stepped onto the turf.
Just as she expected, King Halo was already there. Halo always arrived absurdly early for things. As one of her classmates, Seiun Sky knew that perfectly well. After all, King Halo was the type who was always seated in the classroom long before anyone else every morning. Seiun Sky was pretty sure there wasn't a second girl in the entire academy like that. Most horse girls had no interest in showing up early to listen to teachers who barely knew how to train runners in the first place, giving them only the most basic lectures.
She stamped the ground beneath her feet and quickly realized the turf had been watered a bit too much that morning. The condition of the track was slightly off, and that was bad news for Seiun Sky, since she had already formed a plan for this race.
"So I'll have to tweak the strategy a little…?"
Just thinking about it made her want to yawn again. She pursed her lips, wondering who had dumped so much water on the track that morning.
Then she headed over toward King Halo.
Halo was following behind Terumi Shinji. Since it was only a mock race, Shinji clearly didn't intend to explain much more to her.
From a tactical standpoint, all he wanted from her right now was for her to find the right acceleration point and the right line to launch from. Since she was trying to change her race positioning and running style, these relatively basic but crucial things had to be nailed down first.
"Having Seiun Sky as an opponent is actually a good thing for you."
Shinji, of course, had looked into the opposition beforehand. Mock races were an important mechanism in the academy for raising a horse girl's ability and experience, so many runners entered them. Among them were both established names and rising newcomers.
"Her control over pace and rhythm, and especially her grasp of how a race unfolds, is uniquely sharp. If you can still find your own point to attack under her control of the race, then I think you'll have found the sensation you need to remember."
As he spoke, Shinji's eyes shifted to the approaching Seiun Sky. She had never had a trainer guiding her, and yet she had still managed to produce the results she had. Shinji could not help but admire how much thought she put into her racing.
Of course, the true deciding factor in a race was still raw ability. But horse girls who used their brains tended to perform better both on and off the track, and had longer careers as a result.
She was a horse girl with real promise. If she had a truly outstanding trainer, or even better natural talent, Shinji believed she could have gone even higher.
"Yo, Halo~"
Seiun Sky greeted her lazily.
King Halo froze for a second before belatedly nodding in return.
The many eyes fixed on her from all around the venue hadn't escaped her. She had been tense the moment she entered the grounds, and it was making her reactions sluggish.
Shinji had long noticed this strange contradiction in her. Though King Halo seemed proud and highly self-respecting, of all his girls she was the one most easily wounded by the opinions of others.
"Sky…" he thought. "That's probably part of why there's that hidden madness in her too."
But he said nothing. Seiun Sky simply checked in on her a bit. Among horse girls, there was no real cause for trouble, and Sky herself had no intention of lingering.
She had noticed Shinji too, and immediately understood that King Halo was in the middle of receiving instructions from her trainer.
Watching Seiun Sky turn toward the gate, clearly having already decided on her race plan and with no intention of inspecting the track any further, King Halo looked back at Shinji with a trace of embarrassment.
"It's fine. I've already told you pretty much everything that matters. The important part is that you find that feeling through your own ability. You understand what I mean. That's why, in a mock race, my tactical instructions aren't the most important thing."
What Shinji wanted to see most was whether King Halo could make the right decisions for herself once the race was underway.
She nodded, her steps light as she moved off. Shinji could not tell whether that lightness came from nervousness making her feel unsteady, or from the swelling desire to win that had made her feet feel weightless.
Still, he knew one thing for certain.
The result of this mock race would directly shape how he planned King Halo's future campaign. He had decided to leave the right to choose her path in her own hands.
He had already done everything he could.
Now King Halo had to achieve her breakthrough herself.
Those shadows from childhood, those chains from the past—everything she had endured had ultimately settled inside her own heart. Shinji was not King Halo. If those shackles were to be broken or torn away, only King Halo herself could do it.
He slowly made his way back up into the stands.
The attitudes of many of the trainers around him were strangely complicated now. That was enough for him to understand that what had happened last time had clearly spread.
But so what?
A trainer's duty was to his horse girl, and to his horse girl alone.
As for these so-called colleagues…
Terumi Shinji slowly closed his eyes.
If all of this—every ugly twist in how events had developed—could help King Halo finally understand what she needed to understand, then it would all have been worth it.
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 147)
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 (Chapter185)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter215)
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 185
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/1
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 206
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 190
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/23
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 106
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 125
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 90
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 80
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 86
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 81
Still playing traditional Honk 65
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 65
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 59
Checking In in Demon Slayer 59
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 73
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 45
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 36
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 40
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 60
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 43
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 30
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 31
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