[Big Annoucement!]
[Hi, everyone!! months since I talked directly here xD, not really the best talker (maybe because I spend all day reading...) anyway! as how prices of everything is going up and everyday life is getting expensive I decided to reduce the price of my sub on P@tr30n.
I don't want to make my readers stop having a good time so this is the least I can do.
To coushion a little the lost of money I added a tier for people that want to support me and have access to the polls for new fanfics and incoming events. Just a 1 buck one xD.
The next event will be a poll to pick one of my fanfic to get 10 extra chapters!
Thanks for your support!]
(I remembered wrong. Folkqueen's G1 total should be seven including the Japan Cup. I accidentally cut two wins off her record earlier)
At that, Folkqueen lifted her head slightly and glanced at Kuroha's face.
When she saw the puzzled look in his eyes, a trace of dimness flashed through those originally bright golden-red heterochromatic pupils. She lowered her head again and answered softly,
"It's been all right, I guess..."
"I don't have to do high-intensity training every day anymore, and I don't have to deal with endless media interviews and race pressure either."
"I wake up naturally every day, and once in a while I go shopping. Life here really is pretty easy."
When she got to that point, she seemed to think of something, and a troubled look appeared between her brows.
"But the one thing that's kind of a hassle is... there are just way too many people in Tokyo who recognize me."
"If I don't go out fully disguised every time, I get recognized almost immediately."
That was perfectly normal. After all, she was last year's Japan Cup champion.
At that, Kuroha shook his head and laughed quietly.
But that kind of frenzied scene, where crowds gathered around her wherever she went asking for autographs and photos, really was a sweet kind of torment for someone like Folkqueen, whose personality naturally leaned toward the cool and tsundere side.
After all, as an Umamusume who had practically stood at the top of the world and held seven international G1 victories in her hands,
she had almost never experienced anything like this back in her homeland.
There were difficult people everywhere, after all...
"That just means you're really popular in Tokyo. You're the Japan Cup champion, after all, the one who beat a whole field of top-class rivals fair and square."
"You'll get used to it after a while. Once the next hot topic shows up, people's attention will naturally shift."
"I hope so."
Folkqueen let out a soft sigh and continued enjoying the comfort coming from his hands on her shoulders, her body gradually relaxing completely.
"Oh, right."
As they chatted, Kuroha seemed to think of something and asked casually,
"Now that you're living here by yourself, Elerslie Glory must be pretty worried about you, right?"
Unlike some of the more troublesome people back home,
the moment her older sister was mentioned, a gentle curve unconsciously rose at the corner of Folkqueen's lips.
"Yeah. Big Sis Elerslie really is worried about me."
"Even though she's busy with work and school back in New Zealand, she still makes time to fly over and check on me almost every month."
Like Symboli Rudolf, Elerslie Glory, once New Zealand's greatest Umamusume, was now the student council president of New Zealand Tracen Academy.
After a brief pause, Folkqueen continued,
"But it's not really a good solution to keep making Big Sis Elerslie run back and forth like that."
"So I was thinking that when New Zealand Tracen Academy goes on its long break in July this year, I'd just go back and stay in New Zealand for a while. It'd be a good chance to spend some time with her too."
"July?"
Kuroha's hands paused slightly, and a glint flashed through his eyes.
"You're going back to New Zealand for the July break?"
"Yeah. Isn't that normal?"
Folkqueen nodded, then sharply noticed the odd look in his eyes.
She turned around and narrowed those golden-red mismatched eyes at him suspiciously.
"What's with that look all of a sudden? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's nothing."
After thinking for a moment, Kuroha did not immediately say what was on his mind. Instead, he asked,
"Come to think of it, if you're settled in Tokyo now, that means you should count as a student of Central Tracen Academy, right? How come I almost never see you going to class?"
"I don't want to. I can speak some Japanese, but I'm not exactly fluent. And I have zero interest in sitting through a whole proper school routine."
Folkqueen rolled her eyes.
Actually, when she had first settled down here, she had gone to school obediently enough.
But then she happened to run into that Arc-winning Umamusume who had settled in Tokyo years ago, Tony Bianca, and discovered that her daily life in Tokyo basically consisted of waking up and then wandering all over the country having fun.
Then there was Obey Your Master, the girl who had beaten her once before. She barely went to class either.
And suddenly, Folkqueen understood.
She had earned enough money over the years to live for two lifetimes. So what exactly was she supposed to be studying seriously for?
Early-morning classes?
"Hahaha, that's fair."
At that, Kuroha thought of a few of his own less-than-well-behaved Umamusume and could not help laughing.
"If you're not going to class anyway..."
"Since you were already planning to go back in July, how about... changing your schedule a little and leaving a month earlier?"
"A month earlier?" Folkqueen looked completely confused.
"Yeah."
Kuroha nodded and said in a quiet, coaxing tone,
"When the time comes, come with me. Just treat it like I'm taking you on a luxurious world tour. Room and board fully covered. How about it?"
"A world... tour?"
Folkqueen stared at him blankly as she listened to this completely out-of-nowhere proposal.
Only after a while did she finally seem to realize something, and her expression turned strange.
"Wait... after going in such a huge circle, don't tell me you want me to be Mejiro McQueen's overseas expedition practice partner. Like when we went to Hong Kong last year and I trained with Oguri Cap?"
"Very clever. As expected of Queen."
Kuroha did not hold back his praise at all. He even clapped twice symbolically.
"You really are something... your算盘 is practically slapping me in the face."
Folkqueen shot him an annoyed glare.
"And you're asking me to leave a whole month early. Weren't you supposed to be going at the proper time? What race are you even preparing for that you're taking this so seriously?"
"That's exactly why I need your help."
Kuroha looked at her openly and honestly.
Folkqueen hesitated for a moment, but in the end she still let out a sigh.
"The price for expedition training isn't the same as the price for ordinary partnered runs, you know."
At that, Kuroha thought for a moment, then slowly raised his right hand.
"Hm... then how about this as compensation?"
Buzz.
A pure seven-colored radiance suddenly gathered at Kuroha's fingertips like a star condensing in the night sky.
A peanut-sized mote of [Blessing Power].
Then he reached out and lightly tapped it against her smooth forehead.
The instant his fingertip touched her skin, Folkqueen's eyes flew wide open.
Boom!
She could clearly feel a warm yet overwhelming unknown force surging through her forehead and flooding into every inch of her body like a breached dam!
Deep inside her body, which had gradually dried up and gone dormant after her peak had ended,
astonishing vitality was suddenly rekindled under the influence of that power.
Her mind became clearer than it had ever been before.
The sluggishness in her muscles was swept away in an instant.
An incomparably terrifying strength began roaring and racing wildly through her blood vessels.
This feeling...
Folkqueen looked down at her own hands in disbelief.
This sense of being filled with power, as though she could tear through a storm itself, was exactly the same as half a year ago, when she had stood at the summit of the Atlantic Umamusume world and remained undefeated.
She did not know why an Umamusume's peak period vanished.
She only knew that an Umamusume's peak was brief.
Once that unseen blessing faded away, the decline in strength came like a tide, impossible to stop.
That was also the biggest reason she had chosen to retire.
But now, her peak had come back so suddenly, so fiercely...
The silver-haired girl stood frozen for several minutes, feeling the overwhelming changes surging through her body like seas turning upside down.
Only in the end did she manage, with some difficulty, to raise her head and ask,
"Kuroha... are you some kind of goddess?"
Being able to reverse an Umamusume's decline and restore her peak with sheer personal power alone.
Aside from the legendary Three Goddesses of the Umamusume, she truly could not imagine what other being could possibly do something like this.
"...Do I look like an Umamusume to you?"
Kuroha smiled a little at that, then shook his head and asked instead,
"So how does it feel, being your peak self again?"
Folkqueen slowly let out a breath.
"So this is your compensation?"
Kuroha nodded casually.
"Yeah... If you think it's not enough, you can ask for anything else too. If it's something I can do."
Hearing that, Folkqueen had originally wanted to say that it was enough.
More than enough, in fact.
But when she looked at the young man beside her, she paused for some strange reason.
After silently thinking for a few seconds, she finally said,
"I do have three requests this time."
"What are they?"
"I can't tell you right now."
Kuroha: "..."
"But~"
A smile rose on the New Zealand girl's face.
"From now on, please take care of me, Kuroha."
Kuroha was briefly stunned, then he laughed softly as well.
"All right. Please take care of me too, Queen."
As soon as he said that, his hand unconsciously put in a bit more force.
"Eek...!!!"
"...Q-Queen, no need to be so rough!"
"You idiot... don't suddenly use force like that!"
At once, the room filled with the silver-haired girl's restrained, embarrassed cry.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]