At first, Sirius Symbol had almost failed to recognize Latifa.
After all, the girl had introduced herself with her traditional name rather than her secularized one, Latifa Dubai.
It was only when Latifa invited Xingyun Liuge down onto the track for a run that Sirius finally realized who she was.
This was no kindhearted staff member. She was Dubai's princess—one of the city's most famous horse girls as well.
That being the case, the invitation was obviously a test. She wanted to gauge Xingyun Liuge's true level.
Since she had already realized the girl's intentions, then as Xingyun Liuge's support, Sirius Symbol should have spoken up and warned her in time.
But she did no such thing.
Because this was Dubai.
Not Britain, not America, and certainly not France. The local horse girls here were not as strong as those nations, and their tactics could not compare either.
If Xingyun Liuge and her group could not even clear this hurdle, then they had no business dreaming of challenging the British Triple Crown or the American Triple Crown. They ought to go back to Japan and keep developing themselves instead.
Sirius Symbol had wanted them to experience firsthand just how fierce real international racing was, then remind them:
Foreign competition is far harsher than Japan's. Once you understand that, do you still have the courage to keep running?
But unexpectedly, Xingyun Liuge had already seen through it all—and had even fed Latifa false information in return.
Sirius touched the back of her head and thought, Should I call this "the younger generation is terrifying"?
She herself had suffered from exactly this sort of thing before. European horse girls had analyzed her so thoroughly that she had gone from defeat to defeat.
Originally, she had planned to bring that painful lesson back to Japan and pass it on to those who came after her. She had not expected Rudolf Symbol to ask her to "babysit," and she had certainly not expected that this kid would have no need for her experience at all, leaving her whole educational mission looking thoroughly awkward.
A look of surprise appeared on Sirius Symbol's sharp, handsome face. Then, after a moment, she curled her lips and reached out as if to touch Xingyun Liuge's cheek.
"What an interesting woman," she murmured.
So Xingyun Liuge understood the direction foreign horse girls looked in when analyzing rivals that well? How had she known? Sirius Symbol was intensely curious.
She knew, of course, that some special horse girls could deliberately hide their real strength during normal training, simulate the optimal running style for both themselves and the course inside their minds, and then amaze everyone when the actual race came.
She had simply never expected Xingyun Liuge to be one of them. Honestly, just how many surprises was this tiny horse girl planning to throw at them?
But Xingyun Liuge avoided Sirius Symbol's hand, turned around, grabbed Chihaya Yui and Cuihe by the wrists, and started leading them upstairs.
"So spirited. I like that." Sirius did not feel offended in the least. If anything, seeing Xingyun Liuge like this only stirred a faint thrill in her chest.
She wanted to know more. Much more about Xingyun Liuge.
"Um, Little Song… I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be the trainer, but I didn't even notice something that important. I…"
Cuihe had already gone back to her room, so now only the two of them remained. Chihaya Yui finally spoke up.
She felt she had been unqualified as a trainer. She had barely helped at all. On this whole trip, it felt as though Xingyun Liuge had been carrying everything on her own.
Chihaya Yui thought that was unacceptable. She wanted to apologize, then work twice as hard and change things.
But before she could finish, Xingyun Liuge "mercilessly" cut her off.
Standing on tiptoe, she raised her pale, soft hands and firmly cupped Chihaya Yui's face.
Her fingers sank lightly into the soft flesh of Yui's cheeks as she lifted her face, smiling as she looked at her in all seriousness.
"Don't say that, Yui. We're partners fighting side by side. This time, I just happened to anticipate what she'd do first. It's no big deal."
An apology? There was no need for one at all.
What mattered was that they worked together, won the UAE Derby and every race after it, then returned home in glory and showed those people at the JRA what real brilliance looked like.
Thinking that, Xingyun Liuge decisively hooked her leg around Chihaya Yui's calf and toppled her backward onto the bed.
The girl's pink hair spread out across the sheets, like cherry blossoms drifting onto the surface of water.
Xingyun Liuge looked down at her from above, a slight curve at her lips, until Chihaya Yui's cheeks flushed red and her nerves visibly tightened.
Feeling the warmth beneath her palms, Xingyun Liuge laughed softly.
"That's enough. Don't think about anything. Get some proper sleep. When the sun rises, leave all of yesterday's unhappiness behind."
At that moment, Xingyun Liuge's lovely smile was reflected in Chihaya Yui's eyes.
Without a doubt, it was the finest embellishment the Dubai nightscape could possibly ask for.
Back in her own room, Xingyun Liuge rubbed her hands together and thought, Silent ballot cast.
If she did not use one of her reroll dice now, she would hit the storage cap. That would never do.
This time, things were a little different.
Lead-gray clouds drifted in from the horizon, swelling and surging as they rapidly interwove beneath the help of a shrieking gale, forming thick, oppressive masses of black cloud that blotted out the already meager starlight and plunged the night into even deeper darkness.
Nearly white bolts of electricity slithered and flickered within the clouds. Each flash turned the dark sky a ghastly pale white for an instant before hurling it right back into even heavier darkness.
People from all over the world looked on in alarm.
They felt some extremely primal, suffocatingly terrifying pressure descending from the heavens above, as though even the air itself were trembling.
It was nothing more than intuition, and yet it sank into their hearts with absolute certainty.
In the blink of an eye, an unprecedented, destructive force ripped through the churning cloud cover!
BOOM—!
Even the shrill howl of the gale was silenced before that catastrophic force. The explosive roar of thunder made heaven and earth tremble.
Storms gathered. Black clouds billowed. Thunder shook the sky.
BOOM—!
People felt as though they had heard not merely thunder, but the terrifying roar of something from the primordial wilderness, something so dreadful it made every hair on their bodies stand on end.
This was no mere shriek of stormwinds or bellow of thunder.
It was the descent of something far more terrible.
For one dizzy instant, the horse girls thought they saw a colossal beast towering between heaven and earth.
The rolling thunder was only its roar. The endless storm clouds were merely a cloak lifted and spread by the wind.
It threw back its head and bellowed, its voice filled with ancient majesty and endless fury, proclaiming the return of old gods and the end of mortal order:
BOOM—!
Watching that towering phantom, even the British horse girls who had been looking half-dead in bed bolted upright. They felt every hair on their bodies rise, as if tiny arcs of electricity were crackling across their skin.
They murmured in shock,
"Gosh…"
At the same time, Latifa stood before her window and slowly closed her eyes amid the crashing wind and thunder.
"May the goddess show us mercy and grant us her blessing."
Inside her room, the television was currently showing footage of Xingyun Liuge's Hong Kong Gold Cup race.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
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 (Chapter108)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
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 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
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