"You're back?"
When Saint King Halo pushed open the door to her dorm room, Urara—already sitting inside—turned her head toward her. Her pink hair swayed lightly as Saint King Halo's face filled with confusion.
As cheerful as ever, Urara was beaming with happiness, and that alone made Saint King Halo hurry over and sit beside her.
At this hour, the fact that Urara was in the dorm at all was unusual. Saint King Halo knew better than anyone how hard Urara worked. Even after joining Kochab and training as fiercely as she had, Saint King Halo still usually returned earlier than Urara did.
"What happened? Why are you so happy?"
At her question, Urara pushed a sheet of paper across the table toward her.
The result written there—second place—made Saint King Halo understand at once.
This was the first time Urara had ever achieved such a high placing. It was not first place yet, but it was close enough to matter.
"So hard work really does pay off! I'm going to work even harder from now on. I'm really getting close to my dream!"
The longing in Urara's eyes made Saint King Halo stare for a moment.
She knew very well that Urara was not especially gifted. She had already suffered setback after setback in races.
And yet Urara had never once given up. Even that bright, innocent temperament of hers had never changed.
"So how was your trip? Did you learn a lot?"
Urara turned the conversation back to her, and Saint King Halo nodded a beat later.
In Urara's eyes, she could see a yearning for foreign lands—a place Urara might never reach in her lifetime.
For some reason, guilt pricked at her. Saint King Halo turned her gaze aside and listened as Urara happily talked on and on, delighted for her.
Urara spoke excitedly of the scenery abroad she had seen online, landscapes so beautiful they took her breath away.
Then the alarm clock on the desk rang.
Only then did Urara reluctantly stop talking. Those were views she longed to see herself, and she believed that one day her roommate would be able to see them all. If so, then perhaps Halo could see them partly for her sake as well.
"I'm heading to training!"
Urara rose to her feet.
Saint King Halo could tell she was reluctant to leave the bed behind, but Urara buried that reluctance in an instant and bounced forward with a few light steps.
That vitality of hers stirred something in Saint King Halo as well, though she herself was tired.
She stood too.
Faced with Urara's puzzled expression, she said softly, "I'll go train too."
"You don't need to rest first?"
"I don't."
Soon, Saint King Halo found herself once more standing on that familiar training ground.
She was certain she was the first member of Kochab to return to this field after their trip abroad.
Her training focus was different from Urara's, of course. She was not about to let the momentum of the moment sweep her into blindly following Urara's routine.
The practice-race scenes she had experienced overseas surfaced in her mind one after another.
She had faced many powerful opponents there. Among them were even girls entered in the Dubai Turf and the Dubai World Cup.
It had been a decision she made on her own: whether dirt or turf, if there was a mock race, she would enter it. She had wanted to learn from all those girls she had never raced before, to absorb their strengths.
Even now, those practice-race videos were still saved on her phone.
She had asked idle girls at the track—those resting nearby or waiting for their own turn—to help record them. The angles were limited, but still far better than nothing.
Without even noticing it, she had grown more capable of socializing. More willing, too.
Thinking that, Saint King Halo lowered her body.
A little lower. You can do it…
A voice seemed to whisper from deep within her heart.
She still did not know where it came from, or whether it was truly someone's voice at all.
It felt like words carved into her soul, transformed into sound through her mind—or perhaps some real vibration reaching her from elsewhere. Was it merely her own instincts, her own wishes, guiding her forward? Or something more?
She could not tell.
But during those many practice races, she had experienced this same thing more than once.
It should be something good, she thought.
She still remembered one particular mock race: after that voice had appeared, even when she had already fallen into a disadvantageous position and been boxed in, she had still found a path of her own at the last moment.
She had not won in the end.
But at least, in that moment, she had been given a chance to fight with everything she had.
Drawing in a deep breath, she lowered her posture again.
The voice did not return.
So Saint King Halo kicked off and ran.
The race scenarios she had built inside her mind began unfolding one after another. Having raced in so many practice events now—some won, some lost—she felt that her greatest gain was this: even when training alone, she could instantly reconstruct those races in her head, step into them again, and use them to make new attempts, new simulations, as though she were right there on the track once more.
This was the result of her hard work.
After sweating nearly to exhaustion, she had become a horse girl who had, in a sense, fought a hundred battles.
Her footing shifted, and she angled toward the outside lane.
In the race she had recreated in her head, an opponent failed to hold position properly coming out of the turn, leaving her the smallest opening.
She moved immediately, determined to seize that fleeting chance.
Too naive. You won't get through like that…
The voice sounded again.
Saint King Halo still did not know why it was always so indistinct when it appeared, forcing her to concentrate with all her might just to catch it. She had half a mind to stop right there. After all, once she made a mistake, shouldn't she reset the simulation and start over?
But almost at once, she reminded herself that this run was not over. She had to continue.
You might be late by one or two seconds…
Her stride faltered for a brief instant.
…but you can try trusting your finishing kick. Even with that time loss, you can still catch them.
She understood what that meant. She needed to give back the advantage she had falsely imagined for herself.
In the race model in her head, the runners on the inside surged forward accordingly.
Those opponents she knew only from impressions and fragments—she launched after them again.
The wind seemed to strengthen around her.
Her gaze fixed on the finish line.
She passed the runners on the inside one by one, until she herself became the one in front.
Had she imagined her finishing kick to be too fast? Or had she pictured those opponents as too slow?
That doubt rose in her mind—
But the moment she crossed the finish line in her solitary simulation, she suddenly let the question go.
Throughout this one-person rehearsal, she had remained calm the whole way through.
Of course, part of that was because she was simulating it herself and therefore had known the situation from the outset. Still, Saint King Halo felt her mental fortitude had improved tremendously.
As for the voice in her heart—she knew well enough that a horse girl's speed did not suddenly increase at a given instant. That kind of growth only came through steady, accumulated training.
So perhaps it was only her innermost self, wishing her heart would become stronger too. Wishing she could trust herself more.
With that thought, she lifted her gaze to the sky.
A breeze brushed softly across her finely shaped face, seeming almost to caress the blood-like lines beneath her eyes.
It was gentle, and pleasant.
So pleasant, in fact, that she failed to notice the several trainers up on the highest part of the stands. They had only happened to pass by, happened to see Saint King Halo training alone—
And now all wore expressions of astonishment.
They had once gloated, thinking Teraizumi Shinji must have already given up on this troublesome, headstrong girl.
Yet what they had just witnessed was her breathtaking final burst in that simulated finishing drive.
When they exchanged glances, each saw the same shock in the other's eyes.
Saint King Halo's intention to go straight into the Osaka Hai as her first race of the new year was hardly a secret anymore.
And suddenly, a thought arose—one none of them dared to believe, and none of them wanted to believe either.
Could it really be possible…
Could that girl they had always disliked, always dismissed—
actually win the first-ever newly promoted Osaka Hai?
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 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 25
After Maxing Out Every Class 25
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