"So Miss Glorious Dyna is saying… Little Frankel confessed to you the very first time she met you?" Sea the Stars asked again, sounding as though she still couldn't quite believe what she had heard.
The atmosphere had grown strangely heavy. With an elder speaking, Sea the Stars naturally had no reason to interrupt. Even so, this was the first time she had ever seen her mother give off such oppressive pressure. Had Frankel's boldness really made her that angry? But thinking about it carefully, that didn't feel right. Sea the Stars had always been gentle to a fault, and with Galileo as a precedent, it seemed odd that she would be this upset over Frankel alone.
Dyna swallowed nervously, her voice weaker than before. "Y-yes. Judging by how Little Frankel acted, I think it really was her first time saying something like that. It felt more like… she'd just experienced that kind of emotion for the first time and couldn't control herself…"
Truthfully, Dyna wanted to put in a good word for Frankel. She didn't dislike her at all. If anything, setting aside that confession, Dyna was actually a little fond of her. Frankel was lively, energetic, and impeccably polite for a young lady. She was the sort of person who could max out someone's first impression of her without even trying.
"I see." Sea the Stars clasped her hands together, smiling brightly now. "Then I'm really not worried at all. I understand that child very well. She's actually quite measured in the way she handles things. So if she said something like that, then I can say with confidence that she'll probably have her eyes on you for most of her life."
"…Huh?"
Dyna froze.
This was nothing like what she had imagined.
She had expected Sea the Stars to be furious, to march off and scold Frankel, to tell her not to be thinking about romance at her age and to focus entirely on racing instead. But listening to Sea the Stars now, she sounded… downright relaxed about it.
This was not how Dyna had imagined this would go.
Sea the Stars accepted the teacup Sea the Stars had just filled for her and handed it to Dyna. "I can see why you're surprised. But what I've always worried about was never whether Little Frankel would fall in love. What worried me was whether she would ever fall in love at all. She started life so high up. The number of outstanding horse girls and outstanding trainers she's seen from that position is far greater than most people can imagine. I've always worried that, after seeing so much of the very best, she'd raise her standards for a partner to an absurd height. So if she's truly found a horse girl who makes her heart race, then I'm delighted."
Then, with a soft laugh, she added, "The only reason the mood got tense just now was because I thought you might be joking. Now that I know it's real, I'm completely at ease."
Sea the Stars' expression of approval was so obvious that Dyna almost felt dizzy.
From Sea the Stars' perspective, it made perfect sense. Frankel reaching out to someone on her own was a good thing. If she managed to win Dyna over during this period, wonderful. If she didn't, then she still had plenty of time in the future. Frankel had access to enormous resources and influence—she was practically standing at the pinnacle of the racing world. In all of Japan, perhaps only Fuji Kiseki could compare backgrounds with her.
"U-um… but what about me…?" Dyna pointed weakly at herself, her tone full of disbelief.
She had the distinct feeling that she had just walked straight into a tiger's den on purpose.
And now that she was here, escape no longer seemed easy—especially with Sea the Stars right there.
Sea the Stars studied Dyna from head to toe, then nodded in visible satisfaction. "From an elder's point of view, I'm naturally very pleased with Miss Glorious Dyna. Strong, beautiful, not a single flaw to speak of. You and Frankel seem like a match made in heaven."
From the standpoint of a parent, it was hard to imagine anyone rejecting someone like Dyna as a future partner for their child.
But Sea the Stars was also a former racehorse girl, and she had more to say from that angle.
"Still," she continued, "speaking as a horse girl rather than as an elder… I think you should follow your heart. If you want something, then go for it. If you want to reject her, then say so clearly. Don't try to hide behind half-measures. At our age, when emotions are still maturing and not fully understood, that kind of vague avoidance just looks like bait. And then the other girl bites harder and harder, thinking you're teasing her on purpose. I know, because I was exactly that kind of horse girl."
Hearing that, both Dyna and Sea the Stars focused on her.
Sea the Stars began talking about the past.
She had fled Japan and ended up in Hong Kong, where a kind family had taken her in. She followed them from there into Europe. At first, all she had wanted was to grow up, marry into a good family someday, and repay the people who had saved her. But then, by chance, she saw horse girls racing on a track.
And her heart moved.
She wanted to run.
But she couldn't bring herself to say it aloud to the family who had taken her in. Becoming a racehorse girl required training, and training meant hiring a private trainer outside the academy system—an expense that was anything but trivial.
But Mr. Choi and Mrs. Choi had seen straight through her. Without her ever having to ask, they found her a trainer.
In the beginning, the prize money she earned didn't even cover her entry fees. She struggled for a long time before finally earning the right to run in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. No one believed she could win.
She herself hadn't believed it, either.
The only person who had truly believed in her back then was the Choi family's son.
At that age, both of them had been just beginning to understand love—or at least, that was how Sea the Stars had felt. As for what he thought back then, she still didn't know.
Everyone else had doubted her. But in the final stretch, Sea the Stars found the perfect line and caught sight of a tiny, flickering chance of victory.
And she seized it.
The horse girl nobody believed could win the Arc exploded onto the world stage and took the race in a stunning upset, defeating the strongest horse girls in the world at the time.
From that moment on, she felt that her life as a horse girl had no regrets.
Some called her a fluke, a thief of G1 glory. Sea the Stars never cared. No matter what anyone said, the fact remained:
She was the champion.
And her victory was the moment the bloodline of the Sea family announced itself to the world.
After that, she married the Choi family's son.
Galileo was their first child—the most troublesome of the lot. And Sea the Stars had felt like heaven's gift.
A horse girl blessed with strength, beauty, and brilliance all in one.
Sea the Stars' power would never be questioned or diminished.
When Sea the Stars won the Irish Champion Stakes Irish Champion Stakes, Sea the Stars had been sitting beside her husband in a hospital room, watching it all on her phone. It was the first time she had ever cried in front of family.
It was enough that she herself had borne all those doubts.
"So really," Sea the Stars concluded, "those feelings had already started for me while I was still racing. Of course, I made the first move too, and he dodged it at first. But in the end… well, you can see how things turned out."
As she reminisced, she became almost talkative. Part of it, perhaps, was because after spending so long in the hospital, she had been starved for conversation.
"So that's how Mother got Father," Sea the Stars murmured, hearing the story for the first time.
In truth, she had seen relatively little of her father while growing up. First, because she had spent her childhood under intense elite training, and after taking over the family business, her father had always been extremely busy. The whole family only truly reunited during Chinese New Year. Second, because once Sea the Stars grew older, all she did was train and race. She had been driven by the goal of achieving what her sister had not, and by the dream of winning the Arc alongside her mother. For a long time, she was working harder than her father ever did.
It wasn't until after her retirement, when she and her father both cared for her mother in the hospital, that Sea the Stars really got to know him. Now that Sea the Stars had been discharged, he had thrown himself back into work once more.
Sea the Stars lifted a finger and wagged it. "So, Sea-Star, don't copy me. If you like someone, go get them. Bring them home. You have to think with the confidence of someone saying, 'This is the person the Sea family has set their sights on!' That kind of boldness!"
"Wh-what…?" Sea the Stars stiffened.
She had not expected her mother to have such a fierce side.
Though it was advice from her mother, the etiquette drilled into her from childhood wouldn't let her simply carry out such a brazen plan. And besides… the one she'd lately started to like, strictly speaking, was her own junior…
Sea the Stars' gaze drifted meaningfully over her daughter's tightly held hands and the tension in her midsection before she turned back to Dyna.
"In any case, Miss Dyna, if you really don't like Little Frankel, then just reject her clearly. This kind of thing is about mutual consent. There's no need to let her status make you hesitate."
What her daughter was thinking, Sea the Stars naturally understood. The moment Sea the Stars had started reacting the way she did, everything had been obvious. Sea the Stars had fallen for someone.
And, quite clearly, she herself was still fumbling around in that emotion, unable to define it. Perhaps it was because nothing in her upbringing had ever taught her how to handle such feelings. To Sea the Stars, though, that was no problem at all. She would personally teach her daughter what she needed to know.
"I… I understand. Thank you very much, Miss Sea the Stars," Dyna replied, inwardly desperate to steer the conversation away before it went any further.
Because at this rate, Sea the Stars really did look ready to start discussing wedding venues.
And in fact, from the moment she understood what was going on with Frankel, Sea the Stars had already begun imagining exactly that.
If choosing between Japan and England proved too difficult, then surely the simple answer was to hold two weddings.
"Scary… Miss Sea the Stars, you're terrifying…" Dyna finally exhaled in relief once Sea the Stars returned to the kitchen to continue cooking.
Sea the Stars looked equally relieved, and the two of them exchanged a silent smile.
"Sorry about Mother. She gets impossibly talkative whenever the subject comes up," Sea the Stars said, apologizing on her mother's behalf.
Dyna didn't really mind. It was only natural for parents to care about that sort of thing.
In that sense, she and Sea the Stars were in the same boat.
Which brought Dyna to the question she'd been curious about all along.
Did Sea the Stars herself have someone she liked?
She had asked the soul version of Sea the Stars before, only to be dodged every time. But now the real person was sitting right in front of her, so Dyna decided to ask directly.
"Then… Miss Sea the Stars, do you have someone you like? Would you use the method Miss Sea the Stars mentioned?"
"Ghk—! No, of course I wouldn't do something like that!!" Sea the Stars blurted out. "But… I do have someone I like. It's Zarkava. That is, the great Lady Z."
Sea the Stars said it so cleanly that Dyna was momentarily stunned.
Sea the Stars trusted that Dyna would never reveal something like that, so there was no harm in saying it.
"Oh… I see," Dyna said. "To be honest, I don't think I have anyone I truly like in that way yet. Little Frankel is certainly outstanding, and Zoff is gifted too. But to me, they're both still good friends. It doesn't go any further than that…"
As she spoke, Dyna realized that among all the people in her life, the only one she treated with truly unusual specialness was probably Cody's Wish.
The only horse girl who saw her more fragile side. The one who got closer to her than anyone else.
"Still… if I had to name someone special, then yes, there is one horse girl who matters to me in a very particular way. But it's more that I admire her."
That was how Dyna chose to describe Cody's Wish. She admired her deeply. She wanted to become the kind of horse girl who could bear the weight of others' expectations the way Cody's Wish had. In that sense, Cody's Wish had always been her ideal.
Sea the Stars set a plate of sliced apple on the table and nodded. "As long as your own heart knows what it wants, that's enough. What other people think doesn't matter."
"Hey what are you two whispering about over there? Don't tell me you started talking about romance the moment I stepped into the kitchen. Sea-Star, come help me beat these eggs"
The moment Sea the Stars' voice floated over from the kitchen, both Dyna and Sea the Stars went pale, briefly convinced she had overheard everything.
Fortunately, she had only heard that they were talking, not what they had said.
In the end, because Dyna was staying for lunch, she naturally helped in the kitchen. The three of them busied themselves together.
And, oddly enough, the most useless one there turned out to be Sea the Stars.
Having never really cooked in her life, every attempt she made to help either Sea the Stars or Dyna only created more trouble. Eventually she gave up, retreating from the battlefield of the kitchen and becoming little more than a decorative ornament waiting for the meal to be served.
Even so, it felt… nice.
At the table, Sea the Stars found Dyna's cooking remarkably delicious.
There were chopsticks in the Sea household, thankfully. Otherwise it would have been difficult to figure out how to eat the homestyle dishes Dyna had made.
Simple stir-fried pork, shredded potatoes—ordinary things, yet Sea the Stars ate them with visible nostalgia.
Sea the Stars, on the other hand, had grown up in Europe and scarcely recognized any of it. She had only learned how to use chopsticks as a child, and now, trying to pick up the skill again, she fumbled with them awkwardly.
Sea the Stars' gaze moved back and forth between Dyna and Sea the Stars.
If those two really were family, then this scene—
the three of them sitting together around a table, sharing lunch—
would have looked very warm indeed.
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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