The raised wineglass swayed in the air, its rippling froth drawing a trace of displeasure from the flushed-faced Tōjō Hana.
Of course, Nishizaki Ryu noticed none of it. The man was still immersed in his own delight. The wavering lights and figures before his eyes, combined with the string of good things that had happened lately, had already sent his heart floating into the clouds.
"Ha! Finally, at the end of the month, I get to enjoy myself properly for once!"
The smell of alcohol was a little too strong, enough to make the corner of Terazumi Shinji's mouth curl in faint helplessness—and also enough to stir the curiosity of Minamisaka, who had been watching him from the side.
"So you can smile," Minamisaka teased. "I was starting to think you just couldn't."
Shinji rubbed at his brow. He had no idea how many people had gotten the wrong idea about him by now. It was not as though he never smiled.
"He used to look pretty cute when he smiled," Nishizaki Ryu chimed in. "No idea when it started, but now he smiles ugly as hell."
Tōjō Hana clearly agreed with that assessment. As two of the first trainers Shinji had gotten to know after entering the academy, they had practically watched him grow up.
Minamisaka did not take the bait. The two sitting opposite him were obviously rather drunk already and not especially easy to talk to.
More importantly, he had not known Shinji for very long, so he did not really have a place to jump into that kind of conversation.
He took a shallow sip from his drink, his head aching slightly as he remembered he had forgotten a promise with Twin Turbo today. How exactly was he supposed to explain that to the girl tomorrow? As he thought about it, Minamisaka's gaze drifted once more to Shinji's phone.
Offside Trap's icon flashed across the screen. Minamisaka was sure he had not misidentified it. That was definitely the horse girl under the young man's care.
"Are you really sure it's okay not to reply? It could be something important…"
Shinji froze for a second, then waved a hand and put on what he considered a perfectly proper smile.
"It's nothing. She just asked me to bring her something, and I forgot." As he spoke, he glanced outside. The moon hanging in the sky was bright and clear. If he tried to go to the mall now, it would probably already be too late. "She's just complaining to me. It's fine."
Minamisaka's eyes lit up.
Here they were, both having forgotten promises they had made to their horse girls. He suddenly felt certain he and this younger trainer had a great many things in common.
Little did he know that Shinji was currently counting the steadily increasing negative energy in his head, his mood as relaxed as that of a MOBA player waiting for passive gold income to tick upward.
[Negative Energy +5]
[Negative Energy +5]
He answered Minamisaka casually while listening to the man complain about all the trouble his own horse girl caused him. Yet hidden beneath the complaints was unmistakable affection, and in an atmosphere like this, Shinji found that listening to someone else's grumbling was not so bad after all.
[Look at how other trainers treat their horse girls! Learn something, Shinji!]
The voice in his head sounded as though it was genuinely exasperated with him. Shinji ignored it completely and quietly watched the Emotion Energy on his status panel jump from 545 to 550.
All right. Buy Duel Master.
The system's scolding vanished in an instant, like a sales clerk who had been impatient with a customer right up until the moment the card came out. The speed of the attitude change left even Shinji clicking his tongue.
[550 Emotion Energy has been spent to purchase (Battle Maniac) (Territory Lord) Duel Master.
[If Duel State is entered on the final straight, all attributes +15%.]
{Duel State: the participating runners have opened a lead of more than two horse lengths over the pack behind, clearly hold the advantage, and none of them has an obvious upper hand.}
(Minor rune rolls: Stamina +4, Power +4, Guts +10.)
Refresh minor runes?]
Keep the Guts. Refresh the rest.
[Refresh result: Speed +4, Power +1, Guts +10.]
"Damn!"
The curse slipped out before he could stop it, cutting right through Minamisaka's animated storytelling. Even good-natured as he was, Minamisaka frowned instinctively at being interrupted mid-flow.
"What's wrong? Is there some problem with that?"
Faced with his concerned look, Shinji reflexively picked up the glass beside him. It was still half-full of cola.
After being mocked by Nishizaki Ryu for ages and still choosing cola anyway, Shinji could once have said, without blinking, that he was still just a kid. But now he could not possibly come up with a convincing excuse that quickly, so he could only force out a weak explanation.
"It was just... too much of a coincidence."
"A coincidence?" Minamisaka's expression immediately turned strange. "You only have one horse girl right now, don't you?"
"Yeah."
"So something like that happened between you and her too?"
"More or less. I mean... it was heading in that direction, but, well, you know—I noticed early enough."
Shinji could not quite tell what exactly Minamisaka thought they were talking about, but from the man's expression alone he knew it was probably something bad. So he answered in a way that left himself a bit of room to maneuver.
"Then which one of you was putting in the eye drops?"
Minamisaka looked as curious as a child. Out of the corner of his eye, Shinji noticed that even Tōjō Hana and Nishizaki Ryu, who had been busy fooling around a second ago, had both gone quiet. The two of them were still tangled up with each other, but their ears were practically stretched toward Shinji's mouth.
The corner of Shinji's mouth twitched. He had no idea what on earth putting in eye drops could lead to. After imagining a scene where he and Offside Trap were somehow taking turns putting eye drops in for each other, he decided he had better cast himself in the role of the one applying them.
"So what you mean is," Minamisaka said, suppressing laughter as he carefully pieced it together, "Offside Trap is like Twin Turbo—she habitually opens her mouth when she gets eye drops? And then one day she asked you to put some in for her, but you were concentrating so hard that you almost let saliva drip into—"
"Stop. I noticed in time, so it didn't get that far."
A chill ran down Shinji's back. Only then did he realize how dangerously close his reputation had just come to ruin. He hurriedly cut Minamisaka off and took a huge gulp of cola.
The fizz dancing in his mouth barely managed to tamp down the lingering fear in his chest. Then Shinji suddenly realized something else was off and looked toward Minamisaka.
So he actually dripped saliva into Twin Turbo's mouth?
[No, it was Machikane Shikageki who let saliva drip into Twin Turbo's mouth. Don't make the poor guy sound that dumb, like he's the one drooling on people.]
Machikane Shikageki: ?
Shinji coughed awkwardly twice.
At last, he understood everything.
Unfortunately, it was far too late.
Whether or not the trainers' circle would start spreading the legend of Terazumi Shinji tomorrow remained to be seen, but at least within this group of four, his good name had already suffered considerable damage.
The tavern's atmosphere remained just as lively as ever, but Shinji had already started feeling like the chair was digging into his backside. Human joys and sorrows did not necessarily overlap, and nowhere was that more obvious than in the contrast between Minamisaka's beaming smile and Shinji's utterly expressionless face.
Glancing down at his phone, Shinji slowly rose to his feet.
"All right, I should get going. Miss Fumie asked me to help bring her back two buckets of water…"
[I can testify that this is absolutely false. He even bailed on the dinner he himself said he'd treat everyone to.]
The system's righteous rebuttal went unheard by the other three, who all offered their farewells.
Feeling the weight of their gazes on his back, Shinji stepped out of the still-bustling tavern.
The flow of people in the street had not thinned despite the late hour. Watching the hurried footsteps crossing past one another, Shinji paused for a moment before suddenly thinking:
Three Territory Lord runes now. With the strengthened bond effect, the efficiency of her stat growth is even higher. After tomorrow, I should probably raise the training volume again.
[Does that thought have literally anything to do with the scene in front of you? I'm asking very sincerely.]
No. It just occurred to me, that's all.
[…]
The system's silence was the most satisfying answer Shinji could have asked for.
He took one last look at the tavern sign, then slipped into the stream of people and disappeared into the crowd.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 126)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter134)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
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 87
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 79
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 73
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 49
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 45
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 45
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 31
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 27
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 26
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