Chapter 43: No Story
"Mmh~"
Walking down the hallway of Central Tracen, Maruzensky stretched lazily.
She'd found a quiet place earlier to take a short nap. After waking up, she felt refreshed—like she could throw herself right back into student council work.
Lately, friction between the local academies and Central had been increasing.
Especially up in Hokkaido.
Several schools that used to rely on Central's support suddenly sent notice: they no longer needed Central Tracen's assistance, and they didn't need Central to send people to manage them, either.
They even publicly claimed they could run independently—and train horse girls even better than Central.
To be honest, when Maruzensky first heard it, she thought it was fake news.
Local Tracen academies claiming they train stronger horse girls than Central?
Please. What a joke.
How could the horse girls trained by Central possibly be inferior to locals?
In Japan's racing scene, "Central is superior to local" was practically an iron law.
Anyone who questioned it usually got suspected of being mentally unwell.
But now someone was using that slogan as actual propaganda. As a student council member, Maruzensky had to investigate.
And with her frighteningly efficient investigation skills, she quickly found the source.
Kinno Tracen Academy.
A school that should've declared bankruptcy last year…
Yet somehow, it still existed.
Not only that—its scale had grown to a level comparable to Central Tracen.
What on earth happened in just one year?
The more she dug, the more shocked she became.
Kinno's growth curve looked like it had strapped itself to a rocket and blasted upward at full speed.
But where was the money coming from?
Running an academy costs money—more scale means more expenses.
And since last year, Kinno hadn't been taking much of Central's subsidies…
So if the funding wasn't from Central, then where did it come from?
Someone had to be backing them.
But if that was true, then another question followed:
Who was sponsoring Kinno Tracen Academy? What was their purpose? Was this current situation exactly what they wanted?
The questions piled up like mountains. Just thinking about it made Maruzensky's stomach ache.
It was exactly because of that accumulated stress that she'd chosen to nap in the first place…
Only…
"Waking up always leaves me with a sore back and stiff waist…"
Muttering to herself, Maruzensky headed toward the student council office.
"Mm… no matter what, I should report all of this to the president first~"
With that thought, she went to find Symboli Rudolf.
"At this time… the president should be working in the office."
"I can't even imagine her relaxing properly…"
Maruzensky shook her head as she walked.
"Ohohohoho—"
"?"
Just as she reached the student council office door and reached for the handle, she suddenly heard that sound from inside.
What… is that?
And that voice… sounds kind of familiar?
"M-Mr. Su Luo… that spot… no…!"
"Ah—!"
Isn't that the president's voice?!
Pff!
A puff of white "steam" practically rose off Maruzensky's head as her pale skin flushed bright red.
Even though she was an upperclassman, Maruzensky had no real experience with romance.
But she knew what kind of situation usually produced that kind of voice… and those kinds of words…
Th-this isn't right, is it?!
How could the president be doing… doing something so shameless… in the student council office?!
Maybe I'm not fully awake yet…
It has to be an auditory hallucination!
Yes—recently I've been too busy, so my brain is producing weird hallucinations.
Calm down, Maruzensky. Calm down.
Deep breath. It'll be fine.
She inhaled sharply, fingertips trembling, and finally steeled herself to grip the handle—ready to push open the heavy wooden door in one decisive motion—
But at that very moment, faint panting and soft, broken whimpers leaked through the crack again, like someone's mouth was being covered, or like they were desperately trying to suppress something.
Then a low male voice sounded with a quiet laugh:
"…Even here is unbelievably sensitive."
"Mm… d-don't… not like that… Su Luo…"
Maruzensky's hand froze in midair. She stood there like she'd been struck by lightning.
So they are doing it?!
President!
Rudolf!
You—
How can you do something so shameless?!
Central's… Central's Emperor—how can you make such embarrassing sounds?!
Isn't this total corruption?!
No!
I have to stop the president from falling any further!
Even if it's awkward! Even if we can't be friends after this!
If I push open this door…
There's no going back.
But even so!
I have to protect Central's dignity—right now!
With the resolve of "even if I sacrifice our friendship, I will defend Central's honor," flames of tragic determination burned in Maruzensky's eyes. She stopped hesitating, threw all her strength into it, and—
BANG!
She slammed the heavy door open.
"President!! Please stop this shameless—?!"
Her furious shout died in her throat.
The indecent scene she'd imagined… wasn't there.
The office was brightly lit. Symboli Rudolf lay face-down on the sofa used for short rests, still wearing a neatly arranged uniform—only the hem of her top had been lifted slightly, exposing a strip of her lower back.
And Su Luo stood beside the sofa.
His hands…
Were pressing firmly into Rudolf's lower back—right around her waist.
Hearing the door explode open and the shout, both of them turned toward the entrance in shock.
Rudolf's eyes even had a bit of physiological tear gloss from pain, and she looked confused at being interrupted.
"Maruzen…?"
"?"
"?"
Both Su Luo and Maruzensky had question marks hovering over their heads.
"Huh?"
What… is going on?
Maruzensky just blinked stupidly.
Su Luo kept his pressing posture, lifted an eyebrow, and spoke with a weary kind of understanding:
"As you can see, miss, your beloved president has been hunched over paperwork for so long her lower back muscles are stiff like stone. I'm giving her rehabilitative massage. When you said 'shameless'… what were you going to say after that?"
Maruzensky froze.
The righteous fury on her face solidified—then cracked and crumbled like a shattered mask, replaced by pure, catastrophic embarrassment. It felt like smoke was rising from her head.
"M-massage…?"
She looked at Rudolf, who seemed half-ashamed but mostly just in pain and resignation.
Then she looked at Su Luo's hands—positioned in the most proper, professional place possible.
And finally she understood exactly how huge of a misunderstanding she'd made.
So those weird sounds…
Were just because the president was sensitive to pain?
And "that spot" and "sensitive" were talking about trigger points in her stiff muscles?!
Maruzensky's social death happened in that moment.
She regretted opening the door.
....
My Patreon : patreon/RuneA
If you want to read the novel in advance, you can subscribe for early access. I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in
I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length. If you're following a particular series, please wait your turn a little
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it