The largest training grounds in Central Tracen Academy gathered countless horse girls who wanted to sharpen their skills.
When King Halo followed Shinji Teraizumi into the field, questioning looks immediately began to gather around them.
Though King Halo had failed to win a single race during the Classic season, her past reputation as a genius—as well as her performances on the Classic circuit—had left a strong enough impression that many girls in the academy still remembered this scion of a prestigious bloodline.
The attention from all sides clearly made King Halo uncomfortable, and she awkwardly tried to avoid those prying eyes.
"We'll hold today's test here. The contents are simple enough—your next race should be the Arima Kinen, right? Then we'll use twenty-five hundred meters as one set, and we'll run…"
At that point, Shinji Teraizumi paused. Then, under King Halo's astonished gaze, he smiled.
"We'll do as many sets as I feel like. All right then, that's settled. You can start warming up."
After saying that, Shinji quietly stepped off to the side of the track. Tazuna Hayakawa, who had come along with him, gave King Halo an encouraging look before taking it upon herself to stand in as the starting marker.
That only shocked the girls nearby even more. The overworked student affairs secretary was actually sacrificing her precious time for the sake of one trainer, just to act as a start line.
But King Halo no longer had the spare attention to care about the surprise and curiosity around her.
After going through Shinji Teraizumi's previous test, she knew exactly how strict he was. If she still couldn't focus now, there was only one possible outcome waiting for her: failure.
She quickly loosened up her body. As she stretched her legs and arms, she couldn't help wondering what Shinji Teraizumi's warm-up routines with his actual trainees were usually like. But that thought was still too far ahead. For King Halo, the first thing she had to worry about was how to pass his test.
He seems to value his trainee's perseverance and endurance more… and he also seems to care a great deal about obedience…
Summarizing what she had pieced together about his personality from the previous test, King Halo's focus sharpened even further. Once she felt her warm-up was more or less complete, she strode straight over to him.
Shinji turned his head slightly and looked at the somewhat hurried way she approached, amusement flickering in his eyes. She was clearly trying to puzzle out his temperament; under normal circumstances, after warming up, she would surely have taken a little more time on the way over to steady her condition.
He didn't point that out. He let her speculate all she wanted.
It was perfectly natural for a horse girl to try to understand the trainer in front of her. As for him, he only cared about one thing: whether she had the potential to be developed, and whether she could fit into his system.
"Begin!"
With the drop of Tazuna Hayakawa's arm, the girl shot forward. The other horse girls on the field, seeing that this was some kind of test, tacitly made way and cleared the inside lane.
Watching King Halo run this time without Offside Trap ahead of her to apply pressure, Shinji still gave a small nod. Though there were still many flaws in the way she ran, from ability alone it was clear that she had not been slacking in training.
She was a diligent horse girl.
Tazuna Hayakawa watched Shinji's profile, her expression slightly tense. Even now, she still hadn't fully grasped what kind of trainee Shinji Teraizumi was looking for, or what standards he truly held. The shallow traits he showed on the surface simply weren't enough for her to draw any real conclusions.
King Halo finished the first lap quickly, and many of the girls on the field were visibly impressed by her strength. Anyone who had stood on a G1 stage and contended for victory had already surpassed the overwhelming majority of horse girls in the academy.
Then they looked toward Shinji Teraizumi.
The man merely smiled faintly and tipped his chin.
It was a signal that there was still another set to come, and that she needed to start again immediately.
King Halo worked hard to steady her breathing, standing once more at the starting point while calming the agitation that had risen in her chest from the run.
"Second set, begin!"
A number of people around them looked puzzled. If this were really just a test, then one set should have been enough. No matter how the following attempts were adjusted, they would inevitably be weaker than the first—especially with such a short recovery window before the next run.
At this point, what King Halo was doing looked less like a test and more like full-on training.
Her breathing turned ragged. A full twenty-five hundred meters was no small burden for a horse girl. Her stamina, already not fully recovered, began to fail her before she had even finished half the distance.
Even so, she forced herself through the grueling second set. Bent over with her hands on her knees, King Halo looked hopefully toward Shinji Teraizumi—
and received the exact same response he had given after the first set.
Of course she felt disappointed.
But not all that much.
King Halo had long since prepared herself for the possibility that today's test might stretch into a third, fourth, or even fifth set.
She looked at Shinji as if asking for clarification. Perhaps understanding what she meant, he glanced at his phone and said in an unhurried tone,
"Two minutes."
King Halo had never realized that two minutes could be so precious.
She tried to maintain her poise, but once she realized that doing so offered no help whatsoever in recovering, she simply grabbed the railing and let her legs settle into whatever posture felt most comfortable.
[You've changed already, Shinji.]
The system's voice carried a faint note of just as I thought. Shinji simply nodded.
If King Halo had insisted on maintaining her image at all times, her efficiency would have fallen sharply. In Shinji's eyes, that was unacceptable.
She seized every second she could to recover, but in the end, even her breathing had not fully calmed by the time she once again stood at the starting line under Shinji's gaze. Tazuna Hayakawa looked at her with a trace of sympathy.
Hang in there!
Reading the shape of her lips, King Halo didn't dare nod. She didn't know why, but Shinji Teraizumi—despite not being the most decorated trainer in Japan—had somehow come to possess such tremendous authority in her heart.
Or perhaps it was simply because she really had glimpsed hope, and because she so desperately wanted to change her situation.
"Third set, begin!"
The voice rang in her ears.
This time, King Halo was so exhausted that even her reaction at the start lagged by half a beat. Instantly, a wave of urgency rose inside her. She was afraid Shinji would catch that mistake and interpret it as laziness or a lack of seriousness.
Why couldn't my reaction have been faster? Why couldn't my stamina have been fuller?
She roared inwardly—
but if she had turned back, she would have seen that Shinji Teraizumi showed no sign of dissatisfaction at all. He was merely watching her efforts with clear interest.
She ran around the curve and into the straight. The gazes and murmurs from the girls around her had already stopped registering. The sharp senses she usually relied on were beginning to fail her.
Her breathing was ragged. Her vision had already started to blur.
Several times, she heard the voice in the deepest part of her heart telling her to stop.
Every single time, she crushed it back down.
She forced herself to remember—her mother's harsh rebukes, the whispers and ridicule that had followed her from trainers and others behind her back. She had heard enough belittling words in her life that now, when her body told her she had reached her limit, it was those humiliations and resentments that answered back:
You can still keep going a little longer.
"You have to hold on a little longer."
Ahead of her, she could no longer even tell whether the track before her was straight or curved. She just kept running numbly, gradually losing control of her body.
If her soul had somehow slipped free at that moment, she would have seen her own body moving forward like a corpse animated by sheer force of will, crawling along at an agonizingly slow pace.
The corner of Shinji Teraizumi's mouth lifted slightly.
The horse girl still hadn't given up.
Even though there were already signs that she might lose consciousness… even though she had slowed dramatically… something—some kind of will, some stubborn persistence—was still forcing her feet onward.
Within her reason, there was hatred.
And the obsession born from that hatred was no light feather. With layer upon layer of resentment piled up over time, it had already become something as heavy as a mountain.
[Shinji, can she pass?]
Even the system couldn't quite grasp what he was thinking this time, so it asked directly.
A person wounded by others, yet the one she hates most is herself… What a "magnificent" personality.
Whether it was praise or mockery, the system couldn't tell. But it understood the final line clearly enough.
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 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 132)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 26
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 36
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