Not long after Agnes Tachyon's winner's live performance ended, Shinji Kitahara and his group returned to the activity room.
Because the stage was relatively close to their room, Tachyon had arrived back before them. By the time they entered, she had already returned to her normal state, showing no signs of anything unusual.
Greetings, jokes, and secretly trying to add something to Shinji's water cup.
Seeing the completely normal Tachyon, Shinji breathed a sigh of relief. If she had maintained that strange demeanor after the performance, he really wouldn't have been able to explain what had happened to the others.
Moreover, looking at her now, it seemed she had no intention of telling anyone about what had happened earlier, so he certainly wouldn't take the initiative to bring it up. After all, changing shoes plus a few minutes of foot care was a very normal thing even between trainers and horse girls with a normal relationship. It was nothing to make a fuss about.
Coupled with the fact that Tachyon now seemed to have fully recovered, he quickly put this insignificant little episode to the back of his mind.
However, in his thinking, he failed to notice that although Tachyon appeared no different from usual, some subtle changes seemed to have occurred.
For instance, the slight twist of her ankle when she first saw a certain someone return.
Or the unconscious, gentle sway of her tail when her gaze swept over a certain someone while talking to others.
Perhaps for some, those few minutes were just a very normal, completely negligible minor interlude.
But for others, a few minutes was enough for a seed that had been planted long ago to take root, sprout, and break through the soil.
It's just unknown how long it will take to grow into a towering tree.
...
Tachyon's race was over.
After a simple celebration, Shinji fell into thought. Logically, he should now be preparing for Teio's and Eclipse's races.
But those two...
He looked at Teio, who had already started training on her own in preparation, then at Eclipse, who was still wandering around him as if nothing was wrong, without a hint of nervousness or readiness.
Shinji was silent for a moment, then decisively started to slack off.
But this time, you really couldn't blame him.
He wanted to fulfill his duties as a trainer, but one of these two had told him from the very beginning that he didn't need to, and couldn't, manage anything.
As for the other one, she was an even bigger heavyweight.
Although she would surely listen if he tried to manage her, what would happen after she listened was really hard to say.
So, for the rest of the time, he simply slacked off, scrolling through his phone until the afternoon. In between, he even took Oguri, Special Week, and Eclipse back to Tracen for lunch.
Logically, since Tachyon had just won a race in the morning, as her trainer, he should have taken the team out for a good meal to celebrate. But looking at Oguri, Special Week, and Eclipse beside him, he simply couldn't muster the courage to suggest it.
In the end, he could only sheepishly return to the Tracen cafeteria to continue leeching off them.
Then, the time came to the afternoon.
Tokai Teio was the first to compete.
There wasn't much to say about the process. For her, who was aiming for the Undefeated Triple Crown, a Maiden Race was no different from a smurf match. Moreover, although she hadn't officially participated in many races yet, as the promising junior favored by Symboli Rudolf, she was not unknown. Those who didn't know her had at least heard of her.
So, after she appeared, even before the race began, a wave of low murmurs and discussions erupted from the audience, speculating on how she would perform today.
As for the other horse girls competing in the same race, after recognizing her, their faces turned bitter, cursing their bad luck. Although they struggled with all their might, by the end of the race, even the second-place finisher, who was the closest to her, was left behind by a gap of nearly eight lengths. The third-place finisher was nearly four lengths behind the second.
But no one was unconvinced. No one was even surprised.
And it wasn't just the race itself.
On the post-race winner's stage, Teio also displayed what could be described as professional-level performance skills. Especially when compared to the background horse girls around her, her performance was a dimensional downgrade attack. From beginning to end, she was the sole focus of the entire venue, attracting everyone's attention.
And as her trainer, Shinji of course also received attention.
Not just attention, some people who had been sitting from morning to afternoon even recognized him as Tachyon's trainer as well. After this was pointed out, it immediately caused a small commotion.
Then, after he was identified, reporters, like sharks that had smelled blood, swarmed over with their long and short cameras, trying to dig some exclusive secrets out of him.
Faced with this situation, Shinji gave his own response.
He slacked off.
From the moment the reporters appeared, he closed his mouth and put on a smile. Until the end of the race, he did not utter a single syllable, so silent that it made people wonder if he was mute.
Then, as Teio's race ended, Shinji returned to the activity room.
And then, he found that the atmosphere in the room seemed a bit strange.
Although Teio had just won, the gazes in the room were all focused on Eclipse.
Curiosity, doubt, even suspicion...
By now, his team had been formed for nearly a month, but no one had ever seen Eclipse train or run. They didn't doubt her strength, because being able to transfer from a local academy to the main Tracen campus was in itself proof of strength. Not to mention she had a cheat-level trainer like Shinji by her side, and they were childhood friends who had been together since they were young. Even if she said she was weak, no one else would believe her.
But the problem was, no matter how strong a horse girl was, no matter how talented, she still had to train.
And they were also sure that Eclipse was definitely not the type to be lazy and not train on the surface, but secretly work her life away behind the scenes. Because one of them, out of curiosity, had once tried to follow her, or rather, had just openly stayed by her side for a day.
And then they were surprised to find that her daily routine was extremely regular.
Apart from the time she spent wandering around Shinji, the rest of the time she would just sit in her dorm, and then... there was no then.
She had no hobbies, no entertainment. The thing she did most in her dorm every day was to stare into space. When it was about time, she would go out and wander around Shinji.
Faced with this situation, everyone proposed their own guesses.
"Could it be that Miss Eclipse has some kind of hidden illness, so she can't train or run?"
"Then how did she transfer to the main campus?"
"Then could it be some unique training method that Shinji-san developed for her, the kind where you can get stronger just by standing?"
"Honestly, I think Trainer Kitahara is even more curious about this than we are."
"Then, do you guys think there's a possibility that the reason she transferred to the main campus was not for victory, but purely for the free buffet, so she just stopped training after she got in..."
"This..."
Everyone looked at each other.
Although the guess proposed by Oguri at the end sounded the most ridiculous, if you thought about it carefully, it was actually the most reasonable one.
But no matter how they discussed it, it was all just empty speculation, without any evidence. They had also tried to ask Eclipse the answer to this question directly, but they had never been able to get a response. They had also tried to invite her to participate in an intra-team friendly match, and the invitation was made on the premise that everyone except her had agreed, but in the end, they had not succeeded.
So until now, they still didn't know how strong she was, or why she stood there all day without training, and they were deeply curious about it.
And today, this question would be answered.
So, as soon as Teio's race was over, everyone's gaze was fixed on Eclipse. Even Teio herself, after finishing her winner's stage, immediately urged Shinji to take her back to the activity room and joined the ranks of those staring at Eclipse.
The joy of victory? The scent on the trainer's hands?
All these things were pushed to the back of her mind for now. Right now, she just wanted to know what was going on with Miss Eclipse.
And Eclipse, who was being stared at by them, still had the same attitude as usual.
Calm, indifferent, seemingly uninterested in anything, occasionally staring into the air beside her.
And unlike Teio, although Teio also didn't want a trainer to manage her, she herself had not relaxed her demands on herself. Strategy formulation, pre-race training, warm-up activities... Even without a trainer's intervention and help, she had completed all these things herself.
But Eclipse had not. She had done nothing, just sat there, looking at the air in front of her.
Then, when it was about time, she got up, left the activity room, and walked outside.
"Trainer-san, Miss Eclipse, she..." Teio looked a little worried.
Shinji shook his head. "She's always been like this. You'll get used to it."
Then, the group separated.
Eclipse stepped onto the racecourse. Shinji went up to the viewing stand. And the remaining other horse girls went to the audience seats as usual, their gazes locked on that black figure.
And it wasn't just them. On the other side, on the viewing stand, Shinji was also seriously watching Eclipse on the field.
Although she had won many victories on the anonymous racecourses in various local places before, that was, after all, just local. The opponents were mostly ordinary horse girls who didn't even have the qualification to participate in OP-level races.
But this time, the opponents she would be facing were bona fide existences who had gone through their debut race, passed the Three-Win Class, and obtained the qualification for a Maiden placement race. Their overall strength was much stronger than those ordinary horse girls from before.
But if it were just that, he still wouldn't think those ordinary horse girls would pose any threat to her.
The problem was, because many of the horse girls participating in the Maiden race were there for placement because they had no previous records or points, sometimes some super-spec contenders would be mixed in, like Teio.
And Eclipse's luck this time was not very good.
Although she didn't run into a familiar face like Teio, just by eye, he could tell that among her opponents in the same batch, there were three contenders at about the level of the second place in Teio's race.
Although that second place was also left behind by Teio by eight lengths, almost a large gap, and looked like a weakling, the problem was that the person who had left her behind by eight lengths was named Tokai Teio. And she had also left the third place behind by nearly four lengths. Although there was definitely a gap between her and the top racehorses, she certainly couldn't be called weak.
And of the three in this batch, although two were slightly weaker than that second place from before, the remaining one was even stronger. In fact, if these three were placed in Tachyon's race, with her current situation of being unable to run at full power and at most exerting eighty percent of her strength, there was even a not-so-small possibility that she would be overturned.
He didn't think Eclipse would be overturned, but he was a little curious how she would win. You have to know, this time he hadn't given her a pep talk. And because of the crowd's watching before, although it wasn't obvious on the surface, he could still tell that her mood had gotten a little worse.
The enemy had gotten stronger, so she had to bring out more of her strength, and on top of that, her mood was bad...
He felt that perhaps this time was his chance to find out her true strength. After all, even Teio had only pulled an eight-length gap against such an opponent. A small background character horse girl like you, forget about a large gap, probably wouldn't even have an easy time winning. How could you not bring out your full strength...
...right?
The moment the starting gate opened, before his thoughts could even be sorted out, the black figure rushed out.
One length, two lengths, three lengths...
The race had just begun, still in the starting stage, when the gap began to widen at an astonishing speed, instantly igniting the emotions of the entire venue.
Four lengths, five lengths, six lengths...
By the time the race was one-third over, there was already a six-length gap. People began to discuss whether this would be the birth of another Teio-level contender.
Seven lengths, eight lengths, nine lengths...
After discovering that they could not close the gap between them no matter what, behind the black shadow, confusion and despair began to spread.
Ten lengths, eleven lengths, twelve lengths...
From the ten-length large gap, the originally lively discussion in the audience stands began to weaken. And by the time the gap reached nearly fifteen lengths, the entire venue gradually became quiet.
The race was not yet over, but a fifteen-length gap was already enough to make most horse girls despair.
And what was even more terrifying was that the fifteen-length gap was just the gap between that black shadow and the second place. The remaining horse girls were still a considerable distance from the second place, with the middle pack being more than twenty lengths behind.
And forget fifteen lengths, after the second place was left behind by a large gap, many of the horse girls behind them began to give up, directly walking on the spot. Anyway, it was impossible to finish the race if they continued. It was better to stroll around and save some stamina and see if they could run another race after a while.
In fact, watching the charge of that black figure in the distance, many of them even had the thought of giving up their ambition of being a racehorse and finding a job.
Fortunately, that terrifying charge did not last until the end.
In the last third of the race, her speed began to drop sharply, and her steps also became unsteady. Her figure gradually staggered, and the second place behind her took the opportunity to shorten the gap, finally winning the race with a distance of nine lengths.
And so the audience stands erupted in cheers again, and the other trainers on the viewing stand also turned to look at him.
They had originally thought he would be happy for her victory, but when they looked over, they found that his expression was very strange.
Surprise, doubt, confusion, depression... A mixture of various emotions, but not a single bit of happiness.
Because he really couldn't be happy.
Eclipse's victory was within his expectations. He just hadn't expected her to win so ridiculously.
And what was even more ridiculous was that even though she had won so ridiculously, he found that she still hadn't gone all out. In fact, he felt that she hadn't even exerted much more strength than in the local anonymous races before.
As for the final loss of speed? That was just a joke.
After so many years of getting along, he had found that although Eclipse hadn't learned much else, her acting skills had never fallen behind, and her rate of improvement was on par with his own trainer ability.
At the very beginning, it was obvious acting. After being discovered, she slowly began to learn to disguise. By now, except for him, who had witnessed the progress of her acting skills, almost no one could see through her disguise.
He could bet that her final loss of speed was completely faked.
As for the reason, it could be out of pity for the horse girls behind her, or because her anger had dissipated halfway through the race. It was all possible, and not important.
What was important was that, according to his estimation, even if she hadn't gone all out, and had just run at the momentum from the beginning, the final gap she could have pulled on the second place would have been no less than twenty lengths.
Twenty lengths. What does that mean?
Forget about those background character horse girls, even if Teio went up against her now, she would very likely be left behind by a large gap.
And more importantly, this was not even her full strength, and she had never even trained before.
Looking at the black figure on the racecourse who was starting to walk back amidst the cheers of the crowd, Shinji pinched his chin and fell into deep thought.
Hasn't this world line changed a bit too much?
How can a random background character horse girl he picked up be this strong?
-------
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