Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
With Treve's help, Shirayuki gradually mastered the cornering technique. Before entering a turn, she had to shift her centre of gravity onto her rear foot, then land with the ball of her front foot. Once it was stable, she would move her centre of gravity forward, repeating the process again and again.
The difficulty of this technique lay in the shift itself.
Uma musume could not constantly move their centre of gravity without consequence. Doing so would greatly affect their racing rhythm. To use this skill smoothly without slowing down required a long period of training. Otherwise, if using the technique made her slower instead, it would defeat the entire purpose.
Fortunately, Shirayuki had gone through special training before, so using it was not especially difficult for her. After practising for a while, she could already apply it in a race.
Treve had truly given her too much this time.
She could have hidden this technique until the race and caught Shirayuki completely off guard. Instead, she exposed it early. Not only did she expose it, she even demonstrated it again and again to teach Shirayuki.
Because of Treve's actions, Shirayuki became even more certain that uma musume racing was not simply a contest of speed.
Resolve, willpower, conviction, and even emotion were also part of racing.
"Treve, I made some dessert. Try it."
With only two days left before the race, Shirayuki found Treve and handed her the macarons she had made.
She could not make strawberry flavour. Her technique and equipment were not enough, so she had made cream-flavoured ones instead.
As repayment for helping her, Shirayuki had been making desserts for Treve every day. Not too many, just enough that Treve could burn them off through exercise.
"Thank you."
The two sat on a bench in the academy park.
"Can you feed me?"
"…Honestly, I don't know what to do with you. Open your mouth. Ah~"
After Shirayuki left, the watching classmates immediately swarmed over and surrounded Treve.
"Thank you, Treve. You invited us here just to shove this much lovey-dovey stuff down our throats."
"Should I sacrifice myself to liven things up for you two?"
"Ahaha, I didn't expect Shirayuki to come either."
Treve scratched her head and laughed innocently, though her expression somehow looked a little smug.
"What do we do? I feel like Treve is really asking to get hit right now."
"Yeah, even more than when she wins a race…"
They pulled at Treve's cheeks.
"Why did you call us over? If you really brought us here just to show off, we're going to pull your tail."
"Mm… I wanted… you to help me choose sleepwear."
"Sleepwear?"
"Mm. After the race this weekend, I have something very important to do, so I want to find a pretty set of sleepwear."
Hearing that, her friends exchanged glances.
Then they covered their faces.
"Why… why did Treve become an adult before us…"
"She was clearly a clueless little kid!"
"Um… if you don't want to…"
"Who said we don't want to? We'll help!"
Her friends raised their thumbs at her with tears of blood in their eyes.
"It's just sleepwear, right? Leave it to us!"
On the other side, Shirayuki and Fujiwara Chiya met at the racecourse. Before a race, training volume had to be reduced appropriately so she could conserve energy.
She planned to run ten laps as a warm-up, then practise her cornering a little more.
After two months at Paris Tracen, Fujiwara Chiya was finally about to face his first European race.
Although it was only a GII race, this was an international GII, with uma musume from multiple countries participating. Its value was much higher than a Japanese GII, and the difficulty could not be compared.
Winning this race would not be easy.
But how should he put it…
During this period, his view of European uma musume had changed from initial awe to calm acceptance.
Fujiwara Chiya felt that they were the same as Japan's uma musume. They trained every day, raced every day, and fought for results. If there was a difference, it was that the competition here was more intense.
Aside from that, there was nothing especially different.
As for talent and physical ability, apart from a few rare exceptions, he had not seen anything overwhelmingly superior. They were similar to the uma musume in Japan.
People always described Europe as a brutal battlefield, terrifying beyond measure. But after actually coming into contact with it, Shirayuki realized that everyone was ultimately the same.
These foreign uma musume were not that much stronger than the ones at Tracen.
At least to Shirayuki, the difference between the two sides did not feel that large. Once she adapted to the fields and the rules here, there was no longer a distinction between Europe and Japan.
She was ready.
Her first race in Europe.
The Prix Niel.
…
"Welcome, everyone, to Longchamp Racecourse! This race will feature uma musume from as many as seven countries!"
The announcer's voice echoed through the racecourse. Tens of thousands of spectators waited excitedly for this year's Arc prep race.
Some veteran spectators could already see many things from the prep races, making fairly accurate predictions about who might win the Arc.
Guessing the champion was also part of the fun. As fans, one of their greatest hobbies was discussing their favourite uma musume online and rallying support in popularity polls.
This year's popularity poll leader was undoubtedly the undefeated genius uma musume, Treve.
Second place belonged to an uma musume from America.
Third place was an uma musume from New Zealand.
Of course, this was only the current stage of the poll. The rankings would still change depending on the following races.
For example, this race.
Whoever won a prep race would gain a large amount of popularity, and popularity could give an uma musume strength. Sometimes, the cheers of the crowd were enough to shake the heart.
"Trainer."
In the viewing lounge, Fujiwara Chiya was looking out over the racecourse when Treve happily came over after seeing him.
This room had originally been prepared for people of status, and the number of seats was limited. But because his exhibition race had brought huge traffic to the racecourse, the person in charge had given him quite a few privileges. As a result, he and his uma musume could all enter for free.
"Oh, Treve. You came to watch the race too?"
"Mm."
She sat down beside Fujiwara Chiya.
"I came to cheer for Shirayuki."
"Shirayuki will definitely be fired up if she knows."
"Hehe."
Treve's ears flickered. Fujiwara Chiya habitually rubbed them a couple of times.
When Shirayuki was with Treve, she liked rubbing Treve's ears, so Chiya naturally did the same.
Feeling the warmth on top of her head, Treve lightly swayed her tail. It was only when she saw the white figure on the racecourse that she suddenly realized the person petting her was the trainer.
"U-um…"
"Ah, sorry. It was instinctive."
"It's okay."
Unexpectedly, Treve did not dislike Fujiwara Chiya touching her.
Maybe it was because he was Shirayuki's relative.
Maybe it was because the two of them had the same scent.
Or maybe it was because the way he touched her was exactly the same as Shirayuki.
Treve smiled at him.
Just then, Rice Shower, who had just come back from the bathroom, walked over.
She looked at Treve sitting beside Fujiwara Chiya.
"Why… is Treve sitting in Rice's seat?"