The training track at Central Tracen Academy was in excellent condition. After days of clear June weather, the turf had settled into a near-perfect state, ideal for running.
After checking the ground, Narita Brian's lips curled upward without her noticing.
The course, the distance, the track condition—everything suited her strengths perfectly. And the other girls around her all looked unremarkable at a glance. Victory was practically already in her hands. She could already see it: herself, triumphant in her imposing frame, surrounded by trainers begging to sign her.
Today was the day of her selection race.
A selection race was a stage for horse girls who had not yet signed an exclusive contract with a trainer, a place to show off their results and draw attention.
If she was going to put on a display, then she might as well do it in the most eye-catching way possible.
There were twelve horse girls in this race. So until the very end, she would stay all the way at the back. Then, coming out of the final corner, she would accelerate and unleash the finishing kick she was so proud of, pulling off a breathtaking run from twelfth to first in a single charge.
If she could leave a mark like that at Central Tracen, wouldn't that bring her one step closer to her dream?
As she warmed up while mapping out her strategy in her head, Narita Brian suddenly felt a slight tension at her back.
She was a horse girl especially sensitive to other people's gazes. She could almost say for certain that someone was watching her.
Following that feeling, she turned her head and met the eyes of a young man standing by the railing.
He looked no older than twenty-something. He wore black-rimmed glasses, a white shirt, and black slacks in a somewhat businesslike style. At a glance, he looked every inch the rookie office worker.
Sure enough, pinned to his chest was a horseshoe-shaped badge. In the center was the letter G, with a shining star set inside it.
Narita Brian recognized the badge. It was proof that the man had passed the trainer certification exam and earned his trainer's credentials.
Though the version she had seen before did not have a star on it.
Well, whatever. It was probably some kind of commemorative design.
Surely no one would be brazen enough to forge a trainer's badge inside Tracen Academy.
As for the letter in the center, it represented a trainer's current rank.
The highest was S, followed by A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
G was the lowest.
She had never paid much attention to trainers before, but apparently once someone had more than a year of professional experience, ranking above G was practically a given.
The trainer qualification exam and a horse girl's debut happened around the same time, which meant that the man in front of her was a freshly certified beginner.
Although being noticed by a trainer right away made her happy, G-rank was out of the question.
If she was going to sign a contract, she wanted an A-rank trainer. At the very least, B-rank. Of course, S-rank was even more welcome.
Just as she was imagining herself being chosen by an S-rank trainer, the two of them moving forward as one, claiming an undefeated Triple Crown, surpassing the legendary horse girl known as the Emperor, and making her dreams of coming alone to the capital come true—
A voice, only slightly—truly only slightly—pleasant to listen to, made her ears twitch.
"Um, you're probably a horse girl who's good at closing from behind, right?"
The one speaking was that rookie G.
At first, she had not planned to bother with a novice like him. Sure, his voice was a little nice, but what she wanted was victory. Anyone signing her had to be at least B-rank if they had a nice voice. At the absolute bare minimum, C-rank.
Still… how had he known she excelled at a late-closing style?
Had he been paying attention to her for some time already?
Fine. She would give him a chance.
"Why would you think that?"
Her tone was extremely cold. She did not want to be treated like some easy girl who could be talked into a contract.
"I guessed from the muscle lines in your legs. But I'm not completely certain, so if I'm wrong, I hope you won't mind."
The rookie G adjusted his glasses. Only then did Narita Brian realize how clear his gaze was.
It reminded her of the sky back in her hometown—clean and far-reaching, as though it could hold all things in the world.
If his eyes were that clear, then C-rank might not be impossible.
At the very, very least, D-rank.
"So what if I am a closer?"
Her tone softened slightly.
"I'd like to give you a suggestion. Just a suggestion. Whether you act on it is up to you."
The rookie G smiled in a way that was almost ingratiating.
His smile was likable, like the clear water flowing from the hands of the Three Goddesses' statue, soothing away unease and irritation.
"For this selection race, don't be too fixated on staying all the way at the back to conserve energy. Even if you happen to come out of the gate near the front, don't slow down on purpose. And when it comes time for your final acceleration, move the timing up by one hundred meters."
There had to be D-rank trainers with smiles that likable.
If not D, then E should still be acceptable.
"Why?"
Her voice turned cold again.
He was not even her trainer, yet he was already trying to tell her how to run. Even if he had a somewhat pleasant voice, clear eyes, and a very likable smile, that was still going too far.
"I just finished observing all the horse girls. A few of them didn't look quite right, and there's a good chance some of them will have poor starts out of the gate. That's why I'm suggesting you not be too attached to staying in last. As for the second point, I think this race is going to develop at a very fast pace. On top of that, the home stretch for the final phase is short. If you don't start accelerating earlier, there's a strong possibility you won't catch the front pack."
He had not been watching only her?
He had looked over everyone?
Narita Brian's ears shot upright.
Wasn't it enough for a mere G-rank trainer to watch her? Why had he been watching other horse girls too?
After tossing out a flat "Oh," she stomped away from him with force.
She would make him regret this.
…
Inside gate twelve, Narita Brian found herself in astonishingly good condition.
That brief little episode earlier had not affected her mood at all. If anything, it had helped sharpen her concentration.
The announcer was just about to finish the opening call. The race would begin any second now.
Narita Brian held her breath.
In an instant, the noise of the world receded.
The cramped starting gate before her dissolved into the water flowing from the Three Goddesses' hands, the sky of her hometown, and… that clueless rookie G.
She crushed that image immediately.
No—that was the gate opening.
She had produced a perfect break.
But before she could even savor the beauty of that flawless start, an odd sensation welled up inside her.
Why did it feel like the spectators' eyes were focused with uncanny unanimity on someone else?
Gate twelve was on the far outside, giving her a broad and unobstructed view.
That let her grasp the state of the entire field with only the slightest turn of her head.
The horse girl in the gate beside hers had clearly broken slowly, already about a length behind. In the middle lanes there was even one fool who had lost seven or eight lengths right from the start.
Just as rookie G had warned.
Well, for horse girls racing in a selection race, poor starts were not exactly unusual. But someone in the middle lanes falling behind by seven or eight lengths immediately after the gates opened was relatively rare.
So were the spectators' eyes fixed on that fool?
Of course not.
Their attention was focused on the very front.
One horse girl had seized the lead the instant the race began and was accelerating at a terrifying rate, widening the gap between herself and the rest.
Two lengths. Three lengths… five lengths.
Seven lengths. Eight lengths… ten lengths!
Even after opening up more than ten lengths on second place, she was still accelerating.
A runaway front-runner.
The instant Narita Brian recognized the tactic, her heart jolted.
A frontrunner was a style that seized the lead from the very start, building an advantage in the early and middle stages.
A great escape was an even more extreme, reckless version of that tactic.
An ordinary frontrunner would establish a sufficient lead and then settle into rhythm, preserving stamina for the final push.
A great escape runner, by contrast, blasted at full speed from the opening moments, throwing every rival far behind and practically committing to draining herself dry from the outset.
Even for horse girls, who were naturally gifted runners, the stamina cost of an all-out sprint was crushing.
A horse girl using the great escape tactic would usually either run magnificently from first to the finish and claim a flawless victory… or burn out midway through the race, lose all speed, and collapse to the very back in humiliating defeat.
Not to mention that this was only a selection race for newcomers. Even among already famous legendary horse girls, only a handful could use that strategy skillfully and still win.
There was no question: that horse girl had chosen the most difficult tactic possible in order to seize the attention of the trainers present.
But would the others simply sit back and let her absorb all the spotlight?
Of course not.
Even knowing full well that accelerating so early in the race was an absurd waste of stamina, the horse girls in second and third chose to follow, refusing to let the leader extend her lead unchecked.
The front group's decision immediately affected the middle pack. Once a few more impulsive girls followed suit, even the cooler-headed ones had to grit their teeth and accelerate as well just to maintain position.
And so the trailing group Narita Brian belonged to had no choice but to speed up too.
The pace of the entire race exploded in an instant.
"This race is going to be very fast."
By the middle stage, after she had barely adjusted to the race's brutal tempo, the rookie G's words flashed through Narita Brian's mind.
His prediction had come true once again.
Maybe it was only coincidence.
But…
Should she follow his advice?
That likable smile rose before her eyes once more.
No.
That was not "following his advice."
It was making the correct judgment based on what was actually happening on the track.
Now that the race had become this fast, not starting her move early would be the irrational choice.
As a future legendary horse girl, as someone who absolutely had to achieve her goal, emotions had no place here.
Winning was the only thing that mattered.
Then Narita Brian accelerated.
…
"What astonishing grit! The number-one horse girl, Nanashi, who chose the great escape tactic, has held on all the way to the final hundred meters! Can she really take the victory like this?!"
The commentator, who had been rather flat throughout the selection race, was now shouting with rising excitement.
"But as if to say there's no way she'll simply be allowed to win, surging up on the outside is number twelve—Narita Brian!"
"The final fifty meters!" The commentator sped up as though trying to race the finish line itself. "Who will seize victory in the end—the runaway leader Nanashi, or the chasing Narita Brian?!"
"Nanashi? Narita Brian?!"
"The two are side by side! It's almost impossible to tell who's ahead!"
"It's Narita Brian! Narita Brian has run down the win!"
…
After the race ended, Narita Brian got exactly what she had wanted: trainers crowding all around her.
C-rank. B-rank. A-rank.
There was even an S-rank.
He was a middle-aged man with less hair on his head than on his eyebrows. Though he wore a kind smile, the trainers around him all kept a subtle distance, as though standing before some superior being one was not permitted to touch.
That was the stature of an S-rank trainer.
High above the rest.
"So? Are you interested in becoming my horse girl?"
That was what the S-rank asked.
"May I ask… why me?"
For all her confidence, even Narita Brian knew that her performance in this race alone should not have been enough to attract an S-rank trainer.
They usually moved only when a successor emerged from a great horse-girl lineage, or when someone in a selection race displayed such overwhelming strength that the rest of the field was left in darkness.
No matter how generous she was in judging herself, she could only say she had barely claimed victory.
That should not have been enough for an S-rank to personally step in.
"Why… you?"
The S-rank clearly had not expected such a question. He blinked once, then smiled more deeply.
"So instead of agreeing immediately to an S-rank offer, you ask me that? As expected of a horse girl chosen by the 'Appraising Eye.' I like you even more now."
"The Appraising Eye?"
"You horse girls haven't heard? Lately, among trainers, there's been a rumor going around. Every horse girl who has ever been courted by a certain trainer has, without exception, gone on to display remarkable ability. So little by little, people started saying that this trainer possesses an 'Appraising Eye'—that he can see through a horse girl's potential, and that any girl he takes an interest in is bound to become someone formidable."
The S-rank studied Narita Brian's physical condition with genuine focus.
"And you are one such horse girl, chosen by that Appraising Eye."
He did not say outright who this so-called Appraising Eye was.
But for some reason, a face with a very likable smile surfaced immediately in her mind.
The rookie G.
"May I ask you one last question?"
Without waiting for his answer, Narita Brian voiced the thing troubling her most.
"I saw a trainer whose badge had a star in the center. What does that star mean?"
"A star?"
The S-rank froze for a moment, then smiled in understanding.
"I see. So that's your answer."
He let out a faint, rueful laugh.
"As expected of a horse girl chosen by the Appraising Eye. I'm honestly beginning to regret telling you about him."
He continued:
"That mark means he was the top student of his class. Only a trainer who ranked first in every single subject earns that emblem."
After saying that, the S-rank simply turned and left, pushing through the crowd.
As though he had completely forgotten that he had been trying to recruit her only moments before.
But Narita Brian had no interest in that anymore.
Somewhat flustered, she shoved aside the still-chattering trainers around her and searched for quite a while before finally spotting the rookie G in a corner, head lowered as he wrote something by himself.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm the heart that, for some reason, was beating even faster now than it had at the end of the race.
It did not help much.
After a brief hesitation, she still stomped toward him with deliberately loud footsteps and came to a stop in front of him.
He might only be a rookie G, but at the very least he was supposedly the class valedictorian and the possessor of this so-called Appraising Eye.
Besides, she had heard before that for a horse girl, compatibility with a trainer mattered more than rank.
And if she thought about it that way, then perhaps this man really was the best trainer for her.
"That's a bit early to say, isn't it?"
"What?"
Narita Brian blinked in confusion.
She had not even spoken yet.
Had she accidentally said that out loud?
"Sorry. I was thinking about a TV drama I watched yesterday."
The rookie G tucked away his notebook and smiled at her.
"Congratulations on your win."
"Mm."
Narita Brian nodded.
Then she looked at him expectantly.
Come on. Hurry up and recruit me like the others did.
Standing before him was a future legend who had even drawn an S-rank's attention. If he spoke now, then even if he was only G-rank, Narita Brian might, perhaps, reluctantly nod and agree.
But the rookie G seemed completely unable to read what she meant. He simply returned her gaze with those clear, spotless eyes.
No, this was too spotless.
Was this guy seriously not understanding what she meant at all?
Was he really this dense in this area?
Or did he think a mere rookie G was not worthy of a future legend?
Don't get timid at a moment like this!
Narita Brian felt herself getting annoyed.
But when she thought of the joy of winning the selection race, of the fact that he had noticed her so thoroughly even before the race began, of the exhilarating feeling of winning after following his advice, and of how, if she turned and walked away now, she might never meet another trainer like him—
The frustration in her chest was swallowed by a hotter, stronger emotion.
Fine.
Then let her guide him properly.
She lifted her head, brushed back the hair near her temple, and wore the smile she almost never showed anyone.
Then she said:
"Become my trainer."
Narita Brian could see it.
The two of them moving forward together, side by side.
She would rise from a debuting horse girl to a legend whose footsteps would be etched heavily into history. The goals she had set for herself would naturally be surpassed along the way.
And he, using her achievements as his stepping stones, would climb from rookie G all the way to the pinnacle of trainers—S-rank.
Their names would be known by all of Tracen, by every horse girl and every fan, by the entire world.
And—of course—she had also heard that once the bond between a horse girl and her trainer grew deep enough, there were… even more intimate matters worth discussing.
F-for example… doing horseplay with one's trainer, or something like that…
"Though I'm sorry, I'll have to refuse."
"Huh?! Why?!"
-------
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