Great.
Now there was one more person who wanted Fujiwara Chiya to sign his name on a marriage registration form.
After class ended, Fujiwara Chiya bolted out of his office.
He knew that any second now, a whole swarm of uma musume would storm the room and try to coax, trick, or outright corner him into putting his name on paper.
Tracen had become uninhabitable.
Compared to him, Shirayuki's side was much calmer.
She could not sign her own name. Signing Chiya's name would not do anything either. Even if those girls found Shirayuki, all they could do was beg her to reconsider and go marry someone else like a normal person.
Of course, Shirayuki would never agree to that.
She had already decided she would grow old together with Chiya.
Right now, her greatest wish was to stand beside him in a wedding dress and exchange vows beneath everyone's gaze.
How strange.
Originally, she had not cared much about marriage at all. If anything, it had felt like something distant and unreal.
But now, Shirayuki was genuinely looking forward to it.
Maybe this was what Agnes Tachyon meant when she said the girl part of her longed for a happy, romantic marriage.
When the school bell rang, Fujiwara Chiya sat down in the grass to rest. Before he knew it, December had arrived. There was less than a month left before the year-end Arima Kinen, and as the Empress's retirement race, Central had launched an absolutely massive wave of promotion.
Now, Shirayuki's billboards could be seen everywhere on the streets, along with the symbol of an Arc de Triomphe winner.
Central really does care way too much about the Arc.
Just that one race alone had seemingly eclipsed every other achievement Shirayuki had.
No mention of her two Triple Tiara crowns.
No mention of her title as a Japan Cup winner.
Apparently, once you won one massive international race, every other result got wiped clean from history.
Still, none of that mattered much to Fujiwara Chiya.
Five days after he told Orfevre the secret, she entered the Kikuka Sho and won by a ridiculous seven-length margin. There was not much to say about the race itself. Orfevre basically crushed everyone from start to finish.
Even after the race ended, Orfevre still looked completely composed.
Clearly, she had not gone all out.
Fujiwara Chiya's uma musume were not limited to Shirayuki alone.
As this year's Triple Crown winner, Orfevre's popularity was second only to Shirayuki's, and her title as the Tyrant of the Turf had spread through every street and alley.
For the upcoming Arima Kinen, she and Shirayuki had practically split the audience into two camps. Everyone was discussing whether Orfevre could wash away her previous defeat in the Arima Kinen and seize victory back from the Empress.
Originally, that should have been Orfevre's main concern as well.
But right now, all her attention was on marriage.
The first thing she said whenever she saw Shirayuki was, "Hurry up and let me sign the marriage registration!"
Thanks to that, a rumor had started spreading through Tracen that the Tyrant was going to marry the Empress.
In a certain sense, that was not wrong.
But Orfevre was still in her Classic year. She still had an entire year of racing ahead of her and had not retired to move on to the Dream Trophy.
No matter what happened, there was no way Fujiwara Chiya could write his name on that form.
What surprised Fujiwara Chiya even more was that among all the uma musume, the most aggressive one was not Tazuna Hayakawa, not Rice Shower, and not Mejiro Dober.
It was Grass Wonder, who had only just accepted his relationship with Shirayuki.
The moment class ended, she ran over, leaned close to Fujiwara Chiya's ear, and whispered, "Husband-sama, would you like this humble girl to serve you tonight?"
As expected of a true Yamato Nadeshiko!
Fujiwara Chiya nearly got hit by Grass Wonder's charm effect and fell for it on the spot.
Only when Grass Wonder took out a sheet of paper and said, "This humble girl is unworthy, but please sign here, Husband-sama," did Fujiwara Chiya finally snap back to his senses.
When it came to dirty tactics, Grass Wonder was the strongest after all.
Fujiwara Chiya had never expected Grass Wonder's feelings to transfer over so thoroughly.
Orfevre's attitude toward Shirayuki was still basically the same as before. At most, she would occasionally let a few "Trainer" comments slip.
But Grass Wonder had directly declared that she wanted to marry him.
She said that from now on, she would fulfill her duties as a wife and raise both him and Shirayuki together.
She loved him the same way she loved Shirayuki.
To be honest, Fujiwara Chiya was actually frightened by her.
He had not known Grass Wonder's feelings were that heavy.
The moment she opened her mouth, it was "for life" this and "forever" that.
She could give Treve a run for her money.
Speaking of which, Fujiwara Chiya still had not told Treve about any of this.
Treve had said Paris Tracen wanted to keep her there until the end of the spring season, so she would not be able to transfer over until April.
April.
By then, the wedding would have been over for more than three months.
But there was nothing he could do about it. Treve's position was special. As France's national flower, she could not simply leave whenever she wanted.
Nase Hideto had said he would help from the sidelines and try to get Treve over as early as possible.
Fujiwara Chiya had no idea how Treve would react if he told her he was getting married.
Just thinking about it made his stomach hurt.
Better to keep it from her for now and tell her after she returned.
If he told her now, Treve's mental state would definitely explode. Then she would lose one race after another through the spring season and completely wreck her record.
If that happened, Fujiwara Chiya's sin would be way too heavy.
No matter what happened with an uma musume, it had to wait until after a race.
For an active uma musume, racing was the most important thing.
If the situation had allowed it, Fujiwara Chiya would have even wanted to hide everything from Orfevre too, just so she could stand on the Arima Kinen stage in peak condition.
Unfortunately, that was no longer possible.
Getting Orfevre to race Shirayuki with a clear mind was probably hopeless now.
He could already picture her thinking, "I am your wife!" during the final straight.
What had originally been a pure race had somehow turned into a family dispute.
What the hell have I done?!
Fujiwara Chiya covered his face and silently repented.
He had dyed the racetrack in colors that absolutely did not belong there.
"Mmmya? Trainer, what are you doing here?"
Just as Fujiwara Chiya was hiding from the uma musume, a soft, lazy voice drifted over.
Seiun Sky had her hands tucked behind her head as she strolled over at an easy pace.
"Oh, it's you, Sky."
Fujiwara Chiya breathed a sigh of relief.
Among everyone, only Seiun Sky's reaction had been the calmest.
She had not flown into a rage like Tazuna Hayakawa, nor had she schemed every possible way to make him sign a marriage form like Mejiro Dober and the others.
She simply greeted Shirayuki as usual and occasionally slipped into the office to sleep.
It was as if no matter what happened, none of it had anything to do with her.
"You're hiding from everyone, aren't you, Trainer?"
Seiun Sky giggled and sat down beside Fujiwara Chiya, her fluffy tail draping over him.
The man grabbed her soft tail and kneaded it while saying, "I'm just looking for somewhere quiet. What about you? Why are you here?"
"This is Seii-chan's sacred slacking-off spot. I used to love sleeping here."
"Ah…"
Fujiwara Chiya finally remembered.
"This is where we first met, wasn't it, Sky?"
"Trainer actually remembers?" Seiun Sky raised an eyebrow. "That's right. Back then, Trainer was standing right here, secretly staring at Seii-chan's body."
"Hey, I was not secretly staring."
"You were staring openly, right?"
"It had nothing to do with staring…"
"Ahaha."
Seiun Sky laughed.
Back then, it had always been like this.
She would tease Fujiwara Chiya, and the two of them would joke around together.
Those had been wonderful days.
Just remembering them was enough to make Seiun Sky sleep well.
And she wanted those days to continue forever.
"If Trainer is really that troubled, I could think of a solution for you."
"You?" Fujiwara Chiya glanced at her. "What else can you do besides sleep?"
"Hey, rude. Seii-chan's brain is super sharp, you know? Actually, Seii-chan thought of a solution ages ago. I just didn't say anything because watching Trainer run around in a panic was too funny."
"Seriously…?"
"Want to know?"
"Tell me."
"Come here."
Seiun Sky curled her finger.
Fujiwara Chiya leaned closer.
The moment he turned his head and was about to ask, a sweet taste suddenly pressed against his lips.
He saw Seiun Sky close her eyes.
She was kissing him.
The taste spread through his mouth like pudding.
Soft arms wrapped around Fujiwara Chiya's neck, and just like that, Seiun Sky kissed him as if she had forgotten the rest of the world.
He had no idea how much time passed before they finally parted.
Seiun Sky wiped the saliva from the corner of her lips, her face flushed.
"Trainer is still as easy to trick as ever. No matter how amazing you become, you're still the same Trainer from back then."
She giggled.
But Fujiwara Chiya's mind had already been scrambled so badly that he could barely process what Seiun Sky was saying.
He had thought Seiun Sky was the calmest one.
He had never expected she was simply the one hiding it the deepest.
"Trainer," Seiun Sky said, smiling sweetly, "the solution Seii-chan came up with is this."
"Take Shirayuki and elope with Seii-chan. That way, you won't have to worry about anyone else."