April 30th
The highly anticipated race arrived as scheduled.
"Phew—moving these things over should be enough, right?"
Following Kiryuuin's instructions, Kazuo moved some delivered parts to the store's warehouse.
Kazuo couldn't help but wipe the sweat from his face.
However, Kazuo couldn't rest at all at this moment. He rushed directly to the large LCD screen inside the store. Aoi and Kiryuuin were already sitting there.
"The race? Has it started!?"
Kazuo was afraid he would miss the race, as this was a G1 major event.
Aoi looked at Kazuo's excited expression and couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh, "Not yet. There's still some time before the race officially starts here. The Uma Musume haven't even entered yet."
This was a highly anticipated race, and it coincided with a holiday, so its attention was so high that it could even be described as a race where the entire nation sat in front of their televisions to watch.
"Daijin? Has the race started already?"
"It's about to start! We're waiting for the live broadcast signal to switch over now!"
"Is that so? There are no customers for a while, so everyone take a break."
With Yuriko's command, several staff members in the store also cheered and squeezed over.
Daijin, dressed in her work uniform, leaned on the small round table. Not just her, but all the staff members in the store were eagerly looking at the small TV screen, waiting for the race to begin.
.
"This outfit really suits you, Symboli Rudolf."
In the preparation room, Tojo Hana looked at the Emperor, who had changed into her winning uniform, and couldn't help but exclaim.
This was a G1 major event, and also the Emperor's first G1 race since her debut. According to JRA regulations, all Uma Musume in G1 major events would compete at the highest specifications and wear their custom-made winning uniforms.
This was the highest stage to showcase oneself in the country, a sacred and memorable moment.
The Emperor now standing before her was no longer in her usual student sportswear, nor was she in the G3 or G2 race attire, which was just a number bib.
Instead, she had truly changed into the victory attire belonging solely to Symboli Rudolf.
It was an elegant, dark green European aristocratic gown, with a white silk cravat at the chest fastened with a silver pendant medal.
The handmade gown featured intricate black-and-gold patterned buttons, neatly arranged in horizontal rows.
On her left shoulder was a wheat-ear epaulet and a half-shoulder red cape draped diagonally across her body.
There was a cravat and pure white feathers, and on her left abdomen, an exquisite and complex royal medal with an inscription emblem.
Below, she wore a green-and-white pleated skirt, long black stockings, and leather military boots.
White gloves, a diagonally cinched waist belt, and dark shoulder straps completed the ensemble.
This entire outfit was like the military uniform of an 18th-century European monarch, inviolable in its majesty, solemn and grave, exuding an overwhelming aura of pressure.
This was Symboli Rudolf's victory attire, an existence crowned with the name of Emperor.
"You flatter me."
Symboli Rudolf gently lowered her head.
At this moment, she was extremely calm, as she was about to face an incredibly crucial battle in her career.
The announcement in the hall had already sounded, and according to the instructions, she was about to step onto the track.
"Symboli Rudolf, don't carry any psychological burden.
You have done nothing wrong; you just need to achieve victory—to become a king, you need to climb to the peak by standing on the shoulders of others."
It seemed that Toujou Hana had sensed her hidden unease, and she spoke these words.
This was her answer after a night of deep thought, and it was also the goal they both pursued.
"..."
Symboli Rudolf paused slightly, but when her eyes met Toujou Hana's, she understood something.
She slowly nodded and said, "Yes... you're right.
Thank you, Tojo-sensei."
"Then, I also need to go and fight—"
With that, she turned and walked out the door, and this time, the confusion she had felt earlier was gone.
"Hasn't it started yet?"
Kazuo, sitting in his seat, was already impatient and a little excited.
However, at this moment, Kiryu suddenly received a phone call.
After a few words, he put down his phone and said, "Asama, another batch of newly arrived goods has just been delivered to the back door.
Please go and move them to the warehouse, which is the roll-up storage next door.
The uncle from yesterday will take you there.
Understood?"
"Ah??"
Kazuo was instantly dumbfounded when he heard this.
Kiryu immediately glared at him, "Although the race is important, you have another identity right now, don't you?"
"Guh..."
He was indeed working part-time now, living under someone else's roof...
Kiryu was right; at this moment, he needed to obey the manager's orders.
However, at this critical juncture, it was truly a pain.
"It's okay, Kazuo, the race hasn't officially started yet, not even the official entrance introduction.
So if you finish early and rush back, you'll definitely make it."
Aoi comforted him from the side, but what she said was the most ideal scenario.
Kazuo gritted his teeth and nodded, "Alright, I'll do it!"
With that, he rushed out with a speed he had never used before.
At this moment, he was completely racing against time.
"You're running in the wrong direction, it's at the front door!!"
However, Kiryu's words completely threw Kazuo into a state of utter despair.
"Oh dear, there's a bit of a problem..."
"The manager just called—he said a batch of flowers will be delivered soon... Would anyone be willing to go out and help wait for them?"
Yuriko held her phone, looking very troubled.
Just as she expected, several staff members, upon hearing this, more or less showed reluctant expressions.
Choosing anyone at this moment was a dilemma.
And just as she was hesitating, Daijin stood up.
"Let me go.
Is it to wait for Uncle Nagayama at the intersection outside?"
"Eh... that's right... but, Daijin, don't you really want to watch this race?"
Yuriko couldn't help but be a little surprised.
Although she also wanted to watch the race with Daijin, considering her daughter's situation, if no one else was willing, she planned to go out and do it herself.
However, Daijin had proactively offered to go.
"Hmm... for the race, I can watch it on my phone, and there are replays, so it won't affect anything."
On one hand, Daijin wasn't used to sitting with others, and on the other hand, she also wanted to alleviate her mother's pressure.
After all, as a daughter, her coming to help this time was actually to assist her mother.
Due to previous incidents, or even earlier, Yuriko had worried herself sick over her, so Daijin also wanted to do something for her mother.
Since she had her phone, waiting outside and watching wouldn't have any impact.
Seeing that Daijin had said this, it would normally be reasonable to ask the "newcomer" to do it, but Yuriko really couldn't say anything more.
She could only nod and agree to her request.
PS:
Although I previously said I wanted to finish writing the Satsuki Sho race chapter in one go tonight, it's indeed very long; I've written two thousand characters and haven't even reached the first half, so I'll pause here for now.
I'll see if I can finish it by noon and release it as one chapter.
Also, I mentioned something about inter-chapter comments in the group before.
Perhaps everyone thought I was assigning a task; I still want to clarify that this is just a request, not mandatory.
Perhaps you all think inter-chapter comments are just complaints, but in reality, for an author, they are also a form of feedback.
Writing a book requires feedback; on one hand, it's to feel that someone is reading your book, and on the other hand, it's because what you write needs reader feedback to determine whether it's good or bad, and how the current content is.
All of it requires feedback.
Writing a book without feedback, only seeing a decline in data, is something I have experienced before.
From readers' opinions and complaints about chapter content, I also need to analyze whether there is a need to revise and improve, whether the current progress is appropriate, and whether it is good or bad.
Shuke closed the comment section for five days. Actually, for a typical author who updates two chapters a day, that's only eight to ten chapters of progress. If they're a bit lazier, the impact of not having a comment section or reviews isn't that big.
But I consider myself quite diligent among Uma Musume authors. From the 1st until now, I've updated seventeen chapters, averaging at least three chapters a day. The plot progression is quite significant, with over thirty thousand words of story, and the feedback in between was completely cut off, completely cut off. I have no idea whether what I wrote these days was good or bad.
Do you understand what I mean? Authors also get lost. At this point, I can only look at the subscription data, and the growth shown by these numbers almost always declines.
There's no way later chapters will show an overall upward trend compared to earlier chapters. It's almost impossible. If there's a very obvious jump in subscriptions, it basically means the book has reached its end.
Plus, the recommendation tickets have also been declining these past few days. With only these two data points, it's very easy to start self-doubting.
So, writing a book in silence without any feedback is as painful as being in solitary confinement, because it's always negative feedback, and it really dampens an author's enthusiasm.
You ask why I update so much, staying up late to write and publish. I'm writing at one or two in the morning, three or four in the morning, even pulling all-nighters to update.
Of course, asking readers in the book group to make up for the missing comment section was indeed an ill-advised approach, even though I said 'request, not demand'.
Here, I apologize again, and I thank the readers who were willing to help me with this.
A little bit of venting, but even if I'm feeling down, I still have to update.
This should be the fourth update for the 5th. After finishing this chapter, I really can't write anymore today. Race chapters are at least 6k words or more (I promised not to split chapters).
So, after this chapter is posted, I'm resting. I'll continue updating the race chapter tomorrow morning.
If reading these words from the author has caused any discomfort, I apologize here.
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