The Autumn Triple Crown? The Arima Kinen?
What, was she going to start talking next about the Spring Triple Crown and sweeping both the Spring and Autumn Tenno Sho?
It was all very nice that Symboli Rudolf had already picked out new goals for them to strive toward, as if that could somehow comfort them.
But Xingyun Liuge still said:
"Emperor—if a new little horse girl with tremendous potential appeared before you, would you really tell her, 'The Classic Triple Crown isn't really that special. Let's just go for the Autumn Triple Crown instead'?"
Ignoring the Central horse girls gathered around them, Xingyun Liuge fixed her blazing gaze on Symboli Rudolf. It was as though flames had been lit in her pink eyes.
"I wouldn't," Xingyun Liuge declared, a bold smile spreading across her face. "If I met a junior I truly believed in, the only thing I would tell her is this: 'Since you've stepped onto this path, then there is only one target before us—the championship!'"
Even Symboli Rudolf could not help widening her eyes.
She had never expected some little horse girl to stand right in front of her and speak such unrestrained, flamboyant words.
Chihaya Yui was thoroughly alarmed by Xingyun Liuge's audacity. What local horse girl talked to a major Central figure like that? And not just any figure, either—they were standing right in front of the Emperor herself.
Yui wanted to apologize at once.
She's just a child, she doesn't know better, she's only saying things carelessly…
But horse girls had far sharper reflexes and explosiveness than ordinary humans. Before Yui could act, Symboli Rudolf's admirers had already decided to give this bumpkin from the countryside—this one who clearly did not know her place—a tiny little taste of Central shock.
Who did Xingyun Liuge think she was, being so rude to that august personage?
Sharp, invisible pressure surged out from every corner of the stands.
They wanted to punish this insolent fool thoroughly.
Xingyun Liuge had anticipated exactly this.
She raised one arm and drew a graceful arc through the air, her hair sweeping upward.
"—!"
It was as though one could hear banners being hoisted high, snapping loudly in the wind.
The wandering breeze gathered over the spectator stands, lifting strands of her silver-white hair and letting them stream freely through the air.
Every strand was perfectly distinct, not a single one tangled with another, yet they all lined up in immaculate order. It evoked the solemn ranks of a military formation—or else a pure white canvas, waiting for Xingyun Liuge to paint across it to her heart's content.
Under the sunlight, those orderly strands seemed almost to refract into dazzling gold.
Xingyun Liuge casually rolled her neck, and her silver-white hair surged up like a tide—like waves crashing upon a shore and kicking up a thousand heaps of snow.
In an instant, the invisible pressure vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed at all.
Not only that—someone even blurted out unconsciously,
"S-so… cute…"
The moment she said it, she realized what a disastrous thing that was to say. She hurriedly covered her mouth and nervously glanced around, terrified that her "betrayal" might have been noticed by her classmates.
Fortunately, everyone's eyes were fixed on Xingyun Liuge. No one had noticed her lapse.
Relieved, she quietly exhaled—then proceeded to admire Xingyun Liuge's adorable face with perfect peace of mind.
It felt a little strange, though.
She had actually thought that scene just now was cool.
Not only had she found herself thinking Even small is cute, she had also thought She's so cool.
…Wasn't that kind of weird?
Symboli Rudolf had originally intended to stop the students' behavior. She had even started to raise her hand. But halfway through the motion, Xingyun Liuge, in her own fashion, seized everyone's attention and broke apart the invisible pressure.
Rudolf found herself delighted by Xingyun Liuge's words and actions.
The reason was simple: Xingyun Liuge was absolutely right.
Once one stepped onto the racetrack, one's gaze ought naturally to be fixed upon victory. Only in that way could a horse girl answer the expectations of the crowd.
At the same time, the way Xingyun Liuge had dispelled the pressure was so clever that even Rudolf, as student council president, gave silent approval.
"Then what exactly do you intend to do?" Symboli Rudolf asked, deliberately adopting a colder tone, as if to say: The Central stage is not somewhere just anyone can tread. Think carefully before you answer.
"The world is this large. Is Japan really the only place with a Triple Crown? If Japan's Twinkle Series can't become my stage, then naturally I'll go looking for one that suits me."
"Are horse girls not creatures who chase after the winners' stage?"
Xingyun Liuge's meaning was very simple:
Go abroad.
Unlike the Japanese Triple Crown, neither the British Triple Crown nor the American Triple Crown had been claimed in more than ten years. If she could take one of those, that would be no ordinary rise to fame.
What was more, at least in this era, the professional standard of Japanese horse girls was simply not on the same level as Europe and America.
Take the simplest example.
Four years ago, the undefeated Triple Crown winner and absolute ruler of the Twinkle Series—Emperor Symboli Rudolf herself—had charged at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe bearing the hopes of the entire nation…
…only to suffer a crushing defeat, as though smashing headfirst into an iron wall in Jiangdong.
Compared to the Japanese Triple Crown, the British and American Triple Crowns would prove her strength far more clearly.
Of that, Xingyun Liuge was utterly convinced.
"The British Triple Crown and the American Triple Crown—I'll take them both and show you!"
With both hands on her hips, Xingyun Liuge smiled with a touch of manic arrogance, as though saying:
Central? Don't be rude in front of me.
She had not even run in Japan's Twinkle Series yet. In fact, this was her first time even stepping onto foreign soil—if one counted going from Kasamatsu Racecourse to Chukyo Racecourse as "foreign soil."
And now she was already skipping straight to overseas conquest?
And not just one country's Triple Crown, but two?
Was that not a little too much hot air?
The horse girls looked at one another, unsure whether they ought to praise Xingyun Liuge for her lofty ambition or criticize her for underestimating the heroes of the world.
When Xingyun Liuge rejected her invitation, Symboli Rudolf had already half expected it.
But when she heard the scale of Xingyun Liuge's ambition, she almost laughed in disbelief.
The British 2000 Guineas and the American Kentucky Derby both took place in early May, while the British Derby and the American Belmont Stakes both fell in early June. Even leaving travel time aside, the schedules themselves collided head-on.
Did this girl know what she was talking about or not?
And even if, by some miracle, the schedules were staggered just right, what was this supposed to mean—running five races in seven or eight weeks?
And that was before counting travel time and the time required to adapt to different tracks.
What kind of international joke was this?!
Symboli Rudolf's expression darkened at once.
"Do not underestimate foreign soil!"
How could she possibly stand by and watch a little horse girl with such enormous potential throw herself into a schedule that amounted to suicide?
Rudolf would rather become a tyrant who crushed another's dream than watch Xingyun Liuge come to harm.
So she released her pressure directly at Xingyun Liuge.
"You claim the future is yours? Then prove it to me!"
Flames blazed up in Symboli Rudolf's eyes.
This was the fury born from seeing Xingyun Liuge chase glory while utterly disregarding the real consequences.
She was taller than Xingyun Liuge to begin with, and now she stood on the steps above her. That alone swelled the invisible pressure, like a towering wave crashing down from above.
A gaze ought to have no weight at all.
And yet, under Symboli Rudolf's stare, even the air itself took on a cold, heavy texture, as if burdened with a thousand tons of force—as if it could, at any moment, crush this arrogant little horse girl out of existence.
A suffocating, invisible oppression spread through the stands.
The horse girls from Central Tracen were not even at the center of Rudolf's pressure, and yet they were already trembling. None of them dared breathe too loudly, terrified of drawing the Emperor's attention and becoming collateral damage under that dreadful force.
And that was merely the aftershock of the pressure.
So what about Xingyun Liuge herself, standing dead center inside it?
Surely she had already been pinned down on the spot, unable even to speak a word.
But that was not the case at all.
Xingyun Liuge tilted her head up, the smile never once leaving her face.
Symboli Rudolf's pressure had not affected her in the slightest.
A flicker of shock passed through Rudolf's heart, and she intensified it at once.
Her lips pressed into a thin line. Her eyelids lowered, hiding the emotions surging in her eyes, leaving only two cold, razor-sharp beams of scrutiny.
No unnecessary gestures.
No unnecessary words.
It was as if she needed neither movement nor speech. It was enough that she simply existed above the other girl like this. Enough that her gaze—burning like fire, cold as ice, heavy as a thousand pounds—wove itself into the strongest, most suffocating source of pressure in the world. Enough to pin the girl to the ground, unable to move, unable even to think, her thoughts frozen solid beneath the crushing weight of it.
And yet—
Xingyun Liuge remained completely at ease.
She raised her right hand high and pointed a pale fingertip straight at Symboli Rudolf.
"Then come and witness it with your own body, Emperor Symboli Rudolf!"
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 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 126)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter134)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 87
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 79
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 73
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 49
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 45
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 45
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 31
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 27
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 26
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin