The setting sun dyed the Tracen Academy track a bloody red. The horse girls who had finished their training were leaving in twos and threes, leaving only a few scattered figures still putting in extra work.
"Eh?" Saint-King Halo's pupils suddenly contracted in the twilight.
Narita Top Road had said that Celestial Weave had been training for over half a month without a break, but the person in front of her—
Sweat trickled down her cheeks, refracting an amber glow in the twilight. Her signature black eyes were crystal clear, without a trace of haze.
Just then, the automatic sprinklers on the edge of the track suddenly turned on, forming a hazy barrier of fine water mist between them, shattering her view of her sister into fragments.
"If there's nothing else, I'm going to continue training," Celestial Weave's voice came from the other side of the water curtain. Her face was obscured from view.
The Satsuki Sho was less than a week away. For her, who had even given up rest, nothing was more important than training. After all, she had already used the Medical Repair Kit to suppress her injuries. This was all the time she had left.
The moment she turned, a trembling hand suddenly grabbed her wrist. "Yume, how long has it been since you called me 'sister'?" Saint-King Halo's voice was calm, its meaning unreadable.
"Does something like that really matter?" she replied casually, not understanding.
Except for the beginning of the scenario, she, who considered herself mentally older, had quietly dropped the title. After all, it was a bit awkward to keep calling an elementary schooler "sister."
But to Saint-King Halo, her words had another meaning. "So you really... have been pretending all this time..."
Her voice was still just as calm. Celestial Weave could feel the sweat from her palm. Confused, she turned her head, wanting to see her expression, but all she could see was her bowed head and drooping horse ears.
"What are you talking about?"
"Talent, of course!"
"You've been pretending to lose to me all this time, haven't you!" Saint-King Halo suddenly looked up, a piercing light erupting from her eyes. In her view, her sister, whose talent far surpassed her own, must have realized the gap and had long since stopped seeing her as a sister.
That's right, just like Mother! In their eyes, the untalented me is just a clown for their entertainment.
Just like that Narita Top Road! How could a genius like Yume collapse from mere training?! They lured me here just to laugh at me again!
Just because I have no talent, because I've been losing for a whole year and don't deserve to be a first-class horse girl!
"Pretending... talent?" Celestial Weave's expression suddenly became complicated. She had never imagined that the sister she had never once beaten would say such a thing to her.
What talent did she have? If it weren't for her B-rank limit, would she need to bet everything on her Domain? Would she need to train day and night just for a slightly better chance of winning?
"Isn't that right?! Mother has been favoring you too, hasn't she?!" Having found what she believed to be the correct answer, Saint-King Halo became even more agitated, shouting without regard for the other horse girls present.
Their mother had never told Celestial Weave to give up running.
"You call that favoritism?!"
The Medical Repair Kit could only alleviate physical fatigue, not mental stress. After so many days of training, her mind was already exhausted. After being hit with the topic of talent, she was struck another heavy blow by her sister before she could recover.
Forcing her to be unable to find a trainer, forcing her to resort to this foolish, life-risking training method—if that could be called favoritism, then she really had nothing to say. She could feel her temples throbbing, as if someone were hammering them.
"Am I wrong?!" In Saint-King Halo's eyes, she was just putting on an act. Enraged, she grabbed her by the collar and shouted, "As a world-class horse girl, Mother would definitely favor the more talented you, right!"
"Are you kidding me?!" The mental stress that had been stretched taut like a bowstring finally snapped under her sister's continuous accusations. "The one with the real talent is you!"
"Instead of putting pressure on me here, why don't you go train."
"Can you win a G1 just by shouting louder?!"
Having bet everything on the Satsuki Sho, Celestial Weave couldn't and didn't have the energy to understand her sister's sudden outburst. After speaking coldly, she pulled her hand away. She didn't have time to argue with her here.
Unexpectedly, even after being pushed away, Saint-King Halo refused to leave. She shouted at her sister, who was disappearing behind the water curtain, "Because I don't have any talent! Whether it's a first-class horse girl or the so-called Golden Generation, I can't—"
But before she could finish, Celestial Weave turned and ran through the water curtain.
The grass on the Tracen track was real, to better simulate a racecourse, so it required a large amount of irrigation every day. Even though it only took her a moment to run through the water, she was soaked to the bone. Her black hair stuck to her face, sweat and water mingling together, indistinguishable. Her standard Tracen gym uniform clung to her body.
Dust, dirt, grass clippings—all the debris from training was washed into messy patches of grime. In Saint-King Halo's eyes, she looked utterly pathetic, nothing like the genius sister in her heart.
But her eyes, those black eyes that seemed to be able to capture one's soul, were burning with a terrifying heat. The track lights behind her suddenly turned on, momentarily blurring Saint-King Halo's vision.
"I'll tell you this," Celestial Weave said, grabbing her by the collar. Her eyes were as hot as fire, but her tone was as cold as frost. "The horse girl named Celestial Weave has none of the so-called talent you speak of."
Saint-King Halo opened her mouth, but all her rebuttals were burned to ashes by that gaze.
"But she can still win the Satsuki Sho!"
"She will use her inferior abilities—"
"And win the Satsuki Sho!"
After saying that, she pushed her away and walked back into the water curtain.
Suddenly drained of all strength, Saint-King Halo collapsed onto the lawn. In her blurred vision, the curtain of water turned into flowing amber under the strong light, and her sister looked as if she were walking towards the light itself.
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