As the race drew closer, Shirayuki was so busy she nearly lost her mind.
On one hand, she had to improve her relationship with Rice Shower and gradually hint at the truth between herself and Chiya.
On the other hand, she had to gather information about Treve from Treve's friends.
And on top of that, she still had training.
These were all things only Shirayuki could do. Chiya could not help from his side.
She was almost exhausted.
That day, those classmates brought her new information again.
They said Treve liked strawberry-flavoured macarons.
Hehe.
That's not the kind of information I want!
Shirayuki had no idea what exactly the translation app was doing. She had clearly told those classmates she wanted videos of Treve from events, and she had specifically said she wanted race footage.
But the next day, what they gave her was a five-minute video of Treve changing clothes.
The angle was even subtly focused on the pretty curve of Treve's stomach, right up until Treve noticed and blocked the camera with a flushed face.
And Shirayuki had gone out of her way to make desserts for these people.
For this?
Shirayuki decisively clicked save.
But that was not what she wanted!
She wanted race footage.
Recent race footage.
Since coming to Paris Tracen, she had never seen Treve run at full strength. She still did not know Treve's true ability. But these friends who spent every day with Treve definitely knew.
The problem was that communication between them was extremely difficult.
Every time they gave her something, it was completely different from what she had asked for.
Today was the same.
Looking at the foreign friends who had collected several signed photos of Treve for her, Shirayuki covered her face.
These people had worked hard.
Very hard.
The signed photos were even limited-edition ones with gold borders. One of the students had a look of painful reluctance on her face, which clearly meant it belonged to her and that she had made a major decision before handing it over.
But Shirayuki did not want this!
She silently put the signed photos away.
"Thank you."
"Do your best, Shirayuki. If you work this hard, I'm sure Treve will understand your feelings."
What feelings is she supposed to understand?
Is she supposed to understand my desire to defeat her through the fact that I went through all this trouble collecting her autograph?
She won't.
She'll understand absolutely nothing.
It seemed these students could not be relied on.
Shirayuki could only depend on herself.
"Can you help me ask whether Treve is free this weekend?" Shirayuki asked.
She was going to take the initiative.
Hearing her words, the group of uma musume instantly began chattering and gossiping. Shirayuki's translation app turned into a chaotic mess.
"Of course! We absolutely can!"
At last, from that chaotic noise, Shirayuki received a proper answer.
After leaving Shirayuki, the girls rushed over to Treve all at once.
"Treve, Shirayuki has something she wants to say to you!"
"Mm? What is it?"
Hearing that, Treve's eyes immediately lit up.
The classmate beside her teased, "You get energetic the moment you hear Shirayuki's name. Are you really that close to her?"
"We've been by your side much longer than she has, but we've never seen you act like this. Is this the power of someone who suddenly appeared? Is this the destructive power of Shirayuki falling from the sky? We never stood a chance."
"Could our little princess also have feelings for Shirayuki?"
"Speaking of which, Treve has looked embarrassed every time Shirayuki comes up lately. What exactly happened?"
The four of them made enough noise for an entire platoon.
Treve could not help touching her hair.
How should she put it?
Most of the changes in how she saw Shirayuki were because of these friends.
They had told Treve everything about Shirayuki investigating her. They had even told Treve what information they had given Shirayuki.
At first, Treve had assumed Shirayuki was collecting information on her to estimate her strength and prepare to defeat her in the future. For an uma musume, that was simply part of strategy. There was nothing strange about it, nor could it be called underhanded.
But very quickly, Treve realized she had been wrong.
What Shirayuki wanted were her photos, videos of her changing, her hobbies, the things she liked, and signed pictures.
Race footage had not been mentioned at all!
This made Treve suspect that Shirayuki was not investigating her to estimate her strength.
She was preparing for something else.
Something like that.
A date, for example, or something similar…
Only for that kind of thing would someone deliberately collect information about another person's preferences, as well as photos that were not meant for outsiders.
That was what the internet said.
Treve genuinely wanted to become closer to Shirayuki, and she also wanted to become her rival.
Treve could tell that Shirayuki was strong. Although Shirayuki was always deliberately preventing others from seeing it, that flexible running form alone made her different from ordinary uma musume. She had potential, and she trained hard.
Just those two points were enough to prove that Shirayuki was not an opponent to underestimate.
This year's Arc was destined to be anything but ordinary.
But the information Treve's friends gave her was this:
Shirayuki was not after her strength.
Shirayuki was after her body.
Treve wanted to clash with Shirayuki on the racecourse.
But Shirayuki wanted to clash with her on the bed.
Was this reasonable?
Treve's young worldview suffered a blow.
Because she admired her master, she had stepped onto the racecourse and dedicated everything to racing. She was the hope of all France. She carried everyone's dreams and ran with that in her heart, winning again and again.
There had been people who showed interest in her before, but Treve had always refused them with racing as the reason.
She had many friends, and she treasured friendship. But feelings beyond friendship were something she did not really understand, nor had she ever held that kind of feeling toward anyone.
Then Treve met Shirayuki.
During their interactions, Treve sensed that Shirayuki was different.
But that alone had not been enough to make Shirayuki special.
It was one sentence from Montjeu that completely changed how Treve saw Shirayuki.
Her master said that Shirayuki was the child of the person she admired. She was her senior's daughter. She carried all of Japan's hope and had come to the Arc.
At that moment, Treve felt destiny.
Across the entire Pacific Ocean, two red threads of fate had intertwined.
That was the true reason Treve felt Shirayuki was different, and it was also the main reason she wanted to get along with her.
In Treve's heart, Shirayuki was her destined rival.
She was someone ranked above an ordinary friend.
But for Treve, the people around her were either friends or her master. Shirayuki was closer than a friend, yet not her master.
That complicated position left this pure, almost transparent girl unsure how she should respond.
Now, when Treve was beside Shirayuki, she felt both happy and nervous.
The last time her mind had gone blank, she had directly greeted Shirayuki with a cheek kiss and had accepted the photos from that silver-haired girl.
After seeing those photos, Treve had somehow framed several of them and decorated her room with them.
She liked the lively Shirayuki in those photos.
She wanted to see her every day.
When she heard her friends say that Shirayuki had invited her out on the weekend, Treve clenched her fist.
Now that Shirayuki had shown her attitude, Treve needed to respond properly too.
Treve asked, "What should I wear that day?"
Her friends looked at one another.
"Leave it to us!"