What were Regional Academies like in Secretariat's impression?
A school gate that looked battered and run-down.
Teachers who taught with no energy at all.
Training grounds that clearly had not been repaired in ages, students cursing under their breath while eating the awful food served by the school cafeteria...
That poor, backward feeling was what Secretariat imagined when she thought of regional academies.
But when Sakuraba brought her here, she discovered that Nishikino Academy seemed a little different from the traditional regional academies in her mind.
No.
Not a little different!
You're telling me this is a damn Regional Academy?
At this moment, Secretariat stood at the entrance to Nishikino Academy, staring at the enormous school gate before her, the sort that had clearly cost a fortune to build, and fell into deep thought.
Wasn't this scale a little off?
Did Tracen Academy's gate look this grand?
Had she wandered into Tracen Academy by mistake?
If not for the large characters spelling out Nishikino Academy hanging above the gate, reminding Secretariat that the place before her was indeed that legendary regional academy, she might have thought Sakuraba had brought her to Tracen Academy in Japan instead.
"Mr. Sakuraba... this is the academy you invested in?"
"Yes? Is something wrong?"
"...No, nothing."
Seeing Sakuraba look as if this were perfectly normal, Secretariat pulled the surprise back from her face and silently followed him into Nishikino Academy.
Behind her, Easy Goer's eyes shone with a different light.
So this was... the academy where Sunday Silence stayed?
Easy Goer looked at the expressions of the Nishikino Umamusume passing by. Every one of them wore a bright, cheerful smile, and warmth rose faintly in her chest.
The atmosphere feels different from Tracen Academy...
Behind Sakuraba and Secretariat, Easy Goer looked around at Nishikino Academy with sparkling eyes, and the more she saw, the brighter her expression became.
When she first decided she wanted to transfer, she had never imagined Nishikino Academy would be on this scale.
Originally, when Sunday Silence said coming to Nishikino Academy could make someone stronger, Easy Goer had assumed the academy must be hiding some teachers or student resources she knew nothing about...
But she had never imagined that Nishikino Academy would look like this!
Easy Goer's gaze slowly swept across the broad, clean path, taking in the neat rows of roadside trees and beautifully trimmed flowerbeds on either side.
Not far away, several modern classroom buildings stood in a harmonious staggered arrangement. Their glass curtain walls glowed faintly gold under the sunlight, and the outlines of rooftop greenhouse gardens could even be seen in the distance.
Her steps unconsciously grew lighter. The ground beneath her feet was not ordinary cement, but some kind of warm-textured permeable stone, quiet and steady to walk on.
As they passed an open student lounge area, she saw several Umamusume sitting in rattan chairs and chatting softly, with delicate-looking drinks and snacks set beside them.
The smart water dispenser next to them glowed with a soft blue light. On the wall, an electronic bulletin board scrolled through academy news and training schedules, the image as clear as a movie screen.
The outline of the training grounds gradually came into view not far away.
It was not the crude sand field or old lawn she had imagined, but a standardized training track divided into color-coded zones. Gentle spectator slopes and sunshades ringed the outside, and several pieces of sports monitoring equipment she could not name stood by the track, their screens pulsing with real-time data.
Easy Goer drew in a soft breath.
She could not help shifting her gaze to Sakuraba's back.
This investor... just how much money had he put into this place?
How much did it cost to turn a regional academy into something like this?
It was almost as if he had personally built an ideal city dedicated solely to running and growth atop a stretch of barren land.
She quietly clenched her fingers, and somewhere deep in her heart, a small light began to glow.
Sunday Silence had not lied to her.
This truly was a place...
A place that made people want to become stronger.
Sakuraba turned and headed toward a ginkgo-shaded avenue east of the classroom buildings, speaking to the two behind him as he walked.
"Since Miss Easy Goer is interested in transferring, why don't we start by taking a look at the international class?"
His tone was relaxed, as if he were introducing his own backyard.
"It'll also let her get a feel for Nishikino's international atmosphere."
The three of them continued down the path. The buildings they passed came in a variety of styles; some were filled with modern lines, while others carried the charm of traditional Japanese courtyards, connected to one another by transparent corridors.
The more Secretariat looked, the more unbelievable it felt. At last, she could not help asking, "Mr. Sakuraba, this academy... just how much have you invested in it?"
Sakuraba rubbed his chin, as if recalling some unimportant number.
"Mm, if you add it all up bit by bit, it should be over two billion yen." His tone was so ordinary that he might as well have been commenting on how nice the weather was today.
"I didn't really keep track of the exact amount. If something needed to be built, I built it. If something needed to be replaced, I replaced it."
Easy Goer drew in a light breath.
Two billion...
The number quietly exploded inside her mind.
He really dared to invest that much!
She instinctively looked around.
The smart irrigation system was silently spraying mist over the flowerbeds. In the distance, the data on the screens beside the training grounds flowed smoothly. Students in the corridor held tablets as they discussed something. Everything seemed so perfectly natural.
So all those things that seemed perfectly natural had been piled up with numbers like that.
Even Secretariat felt a little numb at such deep pockets.
She fell silent for a moment as well.
Coming from Tracen Academy, she naturally knew how much funding it took to build a top-tier training academy. But this was still the first time she had seen someone like Sakuraba, who could brush off such an astonishing investment so lightly.
"We're here."
Sakuraba stopped in front of a pale-gray building.
At the entrance hung a bilingual sign: "International Exchange Department."
Through the floor-to-ceiling glass, they could see a bright, open common area inside. Umamusume with different hair colors and skin tones gathered in twos and threes. Some were reading, some were gesturing at screens, and on the sofa by the window sat two girls conversing in different languages, textbooks covered in notes spread open beside them.
"There are currently exchange students and transfer students from several countries here." Sakuraba pushed open the door and gestured for them to go in. "Classes support bilingual instruction, and there's dedicated cultural adaptation counseling too. If MIss Easy Goer decides to come over, Sunny should be happy to have another companion."
Easy Goer stood at the doorway, looking at those unfamiliar faces living earnestly and training hard beneath the sunlight. The small light in her heart quietly spread wider.
Transferring to Nishikino was the right choice!
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T/N: uhhh we arent using honorifics since theyre talking in english blah blah shut up