"All racers, take your positions."
The staff member's listless voice sounded in her ear. Can't Kasamatsu Racecourse even find a commentator anymore? Chizuru thought sarcastically, but she quickly shook her head. Major prize races would still have commentators; it was just this race that didn't. The staff must have already known the situation at the academy. Besides Oguri Roman, who else was worth paying attention to here? The debut race of these few remaining horse girls didn't even have any other spectators. What was the point of having a commentator?
At that thought, Chizuru laughed self-deprecatingly again. Yeah, even the racetrack staff know what we're like. What's the point of staying here? It's just self-humiliation.
Chizuru stood up and turned as if to leave.
"Aren't you going to watch?" Oguri Roman, beside her, noticed her movement but didn't look up, asking softly.
"What's there to see? They even changed the rules for the local debut races recently. You don't debut by coming in first, but by reaching a certain time. Don't you understand why?"
Oguri Roman was silent for a moment. The question seemed difficult for her to answer. "Because now in the local debut races, the speed of many of the first-place winners is also terrible. They don't win because they're strong—"
"They're just relatively less bad, right," Ken Sato, who had been staring at the sky, seemed to have heard their conversation and chimed in lazily. "Is there any point in watching such a ridiculous race?"
"Let's go train. It's just one failure. You can win it back next time," Chizuru said to Oguri Roman after he had finished, but she just kept her head down and didn't respond.
"As educators, we should at least witness every one of our students' races," Principal Haihara said, his voice deep, his back to them, gripping the railing. His voice seemed to be hoarse from the pressure.
Kasamatsu Tracen's survival also depended on social support, much of which came from local people who sponsored it because of their support for Oguri Roman. He didn't know if the loss in the Shunen Stakes would disappoint everyone to the point of withdrawing their support. If that happened, life at the academy would become even more difficult. After hearing the news of the loss yesterday, he had to both comfort Oguri Roman and worry about how to maintain everyone's trust. He was under too much pressure to keep the academy going.
Looking at her father like this, Chizuru pressed her lips together, her hands turning white from clenching them so tightly. She couldn't just watch him bear this pressure, but she couldn't really help him either. In fact, her own decadent self was probably one of her father's burdens.
With a self-deprecating laugh, she turned and waved to them. "I'm heading out."
The moment her words fell, the clear whistle signaling the start of the race sounded. A huge roar suddenly erupted from behind her, like thunder, like a roar, like the furious roar of a monster, shaking everyone's soul.
"Wh... what?!"
Ken Sato, who was usually lazy and flippant, as if he didn't care about anything, his jaw dropped as if he had seen something unbelievable.
"How is that possible!" Principal Haihara's face flushed with excitement. He gripped the railing tightly, this time not because of pressure, but because of an unventable shock.
"So brilliant—"
Oguri Roman, who had been looking down as if she had nothing to do with the world, also looked up, her eyes fixed on the track. Her eyes, which had become a bit dim from her failure, now seemed to be dazzling from reflecting the brilliance on the track.
Thump. Thump, thump, thump.
Her heart, her heart was pounding. Chizuru's heart was pounding wildly, as if it had received some good news and was starting to rejoice. A figure kept replaying in her mind. A terrifying, yet incredibly real, guess was uncontrollably breeding in her mind.
Such a sound, such a shock, a horse girl who could make the three people watching the track exclaim like that—the only one she could think of was her.
Celestial Weave.
Her heart was pounding, her palms were sweating. Her pupils contracted with excitement. The truth was within her grasp. All she had to do was turn around and see everything clearly. It was so real, so close. All she had to do was turn around.
But, she was also a little scared. What if it wasn't what she imagined? What if her expectations were dashed again?
She swallowed. Her body felt like it was burning, scorching her throat. Even swallowing a mouthful of saliva was useless. Her long-lost passion had, in this moment, turned into a tangible heat that was roasting her sanity.
A horse girl like that couldn't possibly appear at Kasamatsu Tracen. She's just an undebuted horse girl. She hasn't even had any proper training. An adult's reason sprouted in her heart, but in the next moment, it was burned to nothing by the passion.
I want to see! I have to see! I must witness this race!
Chizuru whipped around. Her scattered gaze swept over the face of everyone before her. They were shocked, they were surprised. They were shining because they were witnessing brilliance. Those familiar figures were running on the track. She tried to look further, and further, but she still couldn't see Celestial Weave's figure. She swallowed another mouthful of saliva that was as hot as molten iron.
With every inch her gaze moved forward, her heart pounded once. Even though her chest was starting to ache, she felt that this pain was so pleasant, so surprising.
Five horse lengths, ten horse lengths, twenty horse lengths, thirty horse lengths?! The units of measurement in a race could no longer describe the shock in her heart. But when she used horse lengths as a unit of measurement and found that it had already reached three digits, she gave up calculating.
She looked directly at the track. The debut race at Kasamatsu Racecourse was about 1200 meters. Minamino Sumire and the others were now at about the 400-meter mark. And Celestial Weave, that shadow wrapped in wind and sand, had almost reached the latter half of the race.
The distance between them was 300 meters. Converted into horse lengths, that was—
One hundred and twenty horse lengths.
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