Speaking of the Yayoi Sho, now that he thought about it, Kitahara had not been paying much attention to training and races for a while.
But that could not really be blamed on him.
After all, while he was still nominally an ordinary Trainer—and strictly speaking, even a rookie Trainer—
Never mind Chairwoman Akikawa and the other Trainers. Grab anyone at random from the academy and ask them, and not a single person would truly think of him as a rookie Trainer.
He was close with Hayakawa-san, dropped by the Chairwoman's office every few days, came and went from the Student Council room as he pleased, practically raised Tokai Teio together with Rudolf like a married couple with a child, and had recently grown rather close with Sirius Symboli as well...
On his team, Agnes Tachyon was the infamous Agnes Tachyon, Agnes Digital was one of the giants of the Umamusume fan-management world, Grass Wonder still served as president of the restructured Black Forest, and lately he had also connected with several young ladies from major families. Everyone could tell what was going on there...
Even outside the academy, while the two old Umamusume were both old troublemakers who loved a good spectacle, if anything actually happened, they would definitely stand on his side. And because of his past experiences, he had quite a few acquaintances over at the URA as well, though due to the nature of their work, they did not usually have much contact...
Beyond what was out in the open, privately, he also had the connections and reputation he had built while traveling all over, the continuous attention of a certain group of three plus one idiot, and the terrifying shadow that was always by his side...
Although he himself had yet to realize it, in truth, he had long since gained the power to influence Tracen, and even the entire world.
Precisely because of that, despite not particularly wanting to get involved in all sorts of messy affairs, the scope of those affairs was simply too broad. In the end, he was dragged into incident after incident, and gradually, he no longer had as much energy to devote to training.
That said, the reason Kitahara had loosened his control over training was not only because he had too much else to deal with.
In truth, if the situation on his team had not been good, then as their Trainer, he would rather have put down all those messy matters and taken responsibility for the girls on his team.
The problem was that, given the current state of his team, there was not much need for him to take responsibility.
After all, back at the very beginning, because he had not known the exact level of professional Umamusume, and because when he went looking for a benchmark, he had accidentally used a certain "passing Umamusume" as his standard of strength, the plans he made for the little troublemakers on his team had ended up somewhat beyond the syllabus.
Although he slowly realized something was off afterward, the fact had already happened. By the time he came back to his senses, the girls on his team had already grown far stronger than normal Umamusume, and there was no way he could deliberately sabotage them and lower their abilities under those circumstances.
The result was that even now, compared to Umamusume of the same year, the strength of the Umamusume on his team remained absurdly overtuned. Basically, as long as one of his team members entered a race, the championship had nothing to do with anyone else.
On the other hand, aside from the fact that his Umamusume were beyond the standard, there were also plenty of people on his team who could act as assistants and help him handle team matters and training.
Nominally, the only assistant Trainer on his team was Komata-san. In reality, however, whether it was Agnes Digital, who wanted to become a Trainer; Agnes Tachyon, who wanted to collect data for research; or Neicha, who simply worked well with him, all of them could fulfill the duties of an assistant Trainer to a certain degree, and their relevant abilities were quite impressive.
And it was not only them. There was also Tazuna Hayakawa, who occasionally came by for a stroll; Aoi Kiryuin, who had recently started work but had not yet found a Tantou, an assigned Umamusume; Sirius Symboli, who came running over whenever she got bored; and Karai Risa, who had always wanted to join his team...
Although those people were not members of his team, they would still come by from time to time, and whenever they had nothing else to do, they would simply help cover for him.
Not only did they take on a great deal of his work, they even used their own unique experiences to bring the Umamusume on his team all kinds of new inspiration, further strengthening girls whose abilities were already absurd to begin with.
And among the people who came to help, one stood out in particular.
Not only was her status special, she also came over to Kitahara's side with exceptional frequency. After the school year began, it was as if she had joined Kitahara's team; one could basically see her with his team every day.
"President, of course you're welcome here, but is the Student Council really all right...?"
Faced with Kitahara's question, Rudolf merely smiled and waved a hand.
"It's fine. The main reason I was so busy before was that the number of students in the academy had sharply increased, so for a time, there were more problems than we could handle..."
"But this year, in order to deal with that situation, the Student Council expanded its recruitment. After a period of screening and training, our shortage of personnel has basically been resolved. I now have more free time as well..."
"And this year, Teio will also begin participating in the Triple Crown races. It isn't that I don't trust you, Trainer Kitahara, but you know this child's personality too. If I don't keep an eye on her, I truly can't feel at ease..."
That was how Rudolf explained it to Kitahara. As for what the truth actually was...
That depended on who you asked.
In any case, ever since Rudolf started coming over to Kitahara's side, Air Groove's spirits began to visibly wither, and even Narita Brian's number of skipped shifts clearly decreased.
And what did everyone in the Student Council receive in exchange for such hard labor?
The answer was the rapidly shrinking distance between Rudolf and Kitahara.
Originally, because she had once believed Kitahara was her younger brother, and because of the situation with Tokai Teio, even though she admired him greatly and had a good relationship with him, Rudolf had always deliberately kept a certain distance from him, thereby avoiding any awkward situations that might arise if they became too close.
But now, after learning the truth from Speed Symboli, Rudolf had already given up on deliberately maintaining that distance. After that nighttime conversation, she had even made up her mind to take the offensive, and had achieved quite substantial results.
However, even though the results were substantial, even though after several months of getting along with Kitahara, her relationship with him had grown closer than before, their conversations had become smoother, and Kitahara's trust in her was increasing by the day—despite the situation progressing favorably, even showing signs that she might overtake the others despite joining late—
There was still one matter that hung over her head like the sword of Damocles. No matter how smoothly her actions proceeded, and no matter how remarkable the results were, it left her unable to feel completely at ease.
As for the name of that sword, it was the girl in front of her.
"Trainer-san, Prez, we're here!"
Accompanied by Kitahara and Symboli Rudolf, Tokai Teio happily arrived at the Yayoi Sho racecourse. The moment she got out of the car, she began bouncing around and looking everywhere, brimming with energy.
Behind her, Rudolf smiled as she watched Teio's back. On the surface, there was nothing unusual about her at all. Only after Teio turned away did a trace of complicated emotion flash through her eyes.
"Trainer-san, Prez, let's go in~"
Tokai Teio bounced ahead and led the way, while Rudolf followed with a smile. Her gaze swept imperceptibly over Kitahara beside her, then returned to the lively, innocent Tokai Teio in front of her. She sighed softly.
Teio, I'm sorry...
Only in this matter, no matter what, she could not possibly yield...