After spending the day training with Treve, Shirayuki had more or less understood the following points.
When Treve turned, she would drift slightly outward. Before accelerating, she had a habit of checking whether anyone was beside her. And when overtaking an opponent, she deliberately kept a certain distance from them.
These details did not seem particularly useful at first glance, but there was no telling when one of them might cause Treve to reveal an opening.
During training, there were moments when Treve passed her and moments when she passed Treve. Clearly, Treve had not used her full strength.
That made things troublesome.
Shirayuki could not judge Treve's current ability. Even if she deliberately pulled away from Treve, Treve would only quicken her pace and follow behind. She never tried to compete with Shirayuki all the way to the end.
Shirayuki suspected this was an order from Nase Hideto. Outside of actual races, Treve was probably supposed to hold back her speed.
Aside from their group, there were also quite a few tourists and uma musume visiting the racecourse. Without an invitation, they could not freely use the track, but they could look around as much as they wanted.
Among them, there might be trainers or uma musume who would also enter the Arc.
If Treve revealed her strength too early, someone might prepare tactics against her. Because of that, before a race, uma musume usually lowered their speed on purpose to make opponents underestimate them and distort their judgement.
That guy Nase Hideto really was cunning.
Of course, Shirayuki was in no position to criticize him.
She had lowered her own speed to about debut-race level while acting as if she were running with all her strength. Even Montjeu looked speechless when she watched her. That expression clearly said, Do you really need to make it this obvious?
What do you know? This is called honesty.
You know I'm pretending, and I know you're pretending. But since I'm pretending more obviously than you, doesn't that mean I'm more honest?
Besides, Treve did not care at all. From the start of training, she had been smiling nonstop. She was a complete optimist.
Treve walked over to Shirayuki and said something. Montjeu stood beside them and translated.
"Treve is asking if you want to take a bath with her."
A bath?
Treve and me?
Shirayuki hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
This was a good chance to get closer to Treve.
If the two of them became more familiar, maybe Treve would reveal her true strength before the race. Understanding an opponent was also part of defeating them.
Unlike the dormitories in Japan, this place did not have private bathrooms. There was only a shared bath on the first floor of the dormitory. Groups of uma musume could often be seen going in and out together after training.
Treve took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from Shirayuki's cheek. Montjeu stood nearby and looked at the two of them with the satisfied expression of an elder watching over children.
The better the relationship between uma musume, the fiercer the battle.
Montjeu still remembered her races against Northern Dancer-senpai. No matter how desperately she chased, she could never catch that figure.
After one race ended, her senior had said to her:
"Because I value you, I ran with everything I had."
What Montjeu felt in that moment was not anger, but emotion. She felt her senior's respect for her. It was also at that moment that Montjeu came to admire Northern Dancer.
Now that her senior's child had come here, Montjeu hoped Shirayuki could also build a deep friendship with her own student.
They would be rivals, but also good friends.
Treve had a bright personality, and Shirayuki possessed a calmness far beyond her age. Their compatibility seemed good. Even with the language barrier, there should not be too many problems.
"Then Treve and I will go first, Miss Montjeu."
"All right."
The rest could be left to the young ones. She had only needed to bring them together.
"Will you come tomorrow too, Shirayuki?"
On the way, Treve asked in slightly smoother Japanese. Her pronunciation had improved visibly. That was not something she could have achieved without regular practice.
Don't tell me you're using all your free time to study Japanese?
Are you secretly trying to understand me too?
"Of course. If you want to come, I'll come too."
Shirayuki spoke slowly and clearly, choosing the simplest sentence structure so Treve could understand.
If this little foreign uma musume learned Japanese, it would be much easier for her to come to Japan in the future.
When that time came, Shirayuki could even bring her to Tracen.
As they walked, Treve quietly took out the handkerchief she had used to wipe Shirayuki's sweat and brought it to her nose.
There was a rose-like scent.
It reminded Treve of the perfume her mother had used when she was little. Whenever her mother hugged her, that same scent would drift from her hair. Treve had always liked it very much.
So when she smelled it on Shirayuki, she froze for a moment.
The scent coming from Shirayuki was exactly the one she liked most.
Of course, scent was not the only reason Treve paid so much attention to Shirayuki.
It was also because Shirayuki had an unusual presence. Compared with other uma musume, Shirayuki clearly gave off a sense of maturity and composure. That calm, adorable face and those clear blue eyes made it feel as though she had seen through everything.
After learning from her teacher Montjeu about the connection between them, Treve made up her mind to become friends with Shirayuki.
Even if there was a language barrier between them, she would overcome it.
As the star called a genius by Europe, there was nothing she could not do.
According to the information she had looked up, in Japan, friendship could be deepened by bathing together and washing each other's backs.
In that case, she wanted to try it.
When they entered the changing room, quite a few uma musume had just finished training.
As the weather grew hotter, uma musume bathed more frequently. The moment they entered, there was a distinct post-training smell in the air. The scent of sweat, damp cloth, and summer heat mixed together. The closer it got to summer, the more troublesome these things became for them.
Treve removed her shoes and changed out of her training clothes, placing them together in a neat pile. Then she wrapped herself in a towel and turned to look for Shirayuki.
And then Treve saw it.
The pure white girl was standing there with a faint blush on her face, staring at the nearby uma musume who were changing clothes.
Her gaze looked as though she were looking at the most precious treasures in the world.
"?"
Treve tilted her head and called out.
"Shirayuki."
Only then did the girl snap back to her senses, quickly change, and give Treve an embarrassed smile while saying something Treve could not yet understand.
The two of them entered the bath area.
Treve was still a little curious about what had just happened.
It felt like…
Shirayuki had been completely fascinated by the students changing nearby.
Just as Treve was thinking that, Shirayuki took out a towel and gestured that she would wash Treve's back.