"Let me double-check Mr. Wada's order. Whole wheat bread and dark chocolate bread, right?"
Since it was the final order of the day, Dyna handled it herself. And while she was reading the note, she did not have to make eye contact with Opera O, which let her relax a little.
Opera O touched the tip of her nose and glanced toward Meisho Doto. Only after seeing the little bean nod did she answer, "That's right!"
Holding her ballpoint pen against her chin, Dyna pressed her lips together and fell into thought. After all, it was rare enough to get one of the limited special order slots from her shop, and no trainer who made it that far ever ordered such plain, unremarkable bread.
Her gaze shifted to Opera O and Meisho Doto's faces. Dyna actually knew quite a bit about this so-called霸王 of the age, and one thing was crystal clear to her: Opera O's pride as a queenly conqueror had given her a personality that simply could not lie well. The faint evasiveness in her eyes was the best proof of all.
As for little Doto, she was already timid by nature and hopelessly unlucky. A person like that probably thought lying might bring even worse luck to the person being lied to. So in some ways, the information Meisho Doto was leaking to Dyna was even more obvious. By now, the little bean looked as if she might bury her whole head into her chest right there in front of Dyna.
"All right, then. Please sign your name here. Ship—could you package it up for them?"
Dyna handed the signature board to Opera O and seated herself behind the register. There was actually a tall stool behind the counter, convenient for a short horse girl like Dyna so she could see what was going on outside.
Since her most common customer was Oguri Cap, Dyna deliberately adjusted the chair a little higher, making sure that, while seated, she still occupied the psychological high ground over Opera O.
That made certain conversations easier to settle.
Since it was obvious that the two of them had come burdened with something on their minds, yet refused to say it outright, Dyna decided to cut straight through the fog. She had seen all kinds of people by now. Problems ought to be handled efficiently.
"And also... there's something I want to ask you two."
Dyna tapped the tabletop lightly with her fingertip while the tip of her tail swayed behind her.
"You came here feeling guilty about something, didn't you?"
Dyna had worked with children for a very long time. Even if she had never formally studied child psychology, she had still figured out a good seventy or eighty percent of it.
And for creatures as straightforward as horse girls, the same principles applied perfectly well.
If anything, once exposed, their skin was even thinner than a child's.
Opera O's radiant smile froze for an instant.
Was the boss lady really this sharp?!
What the hell—had the intelligence report been wrong?!
With the dangerous stares of the two gray-haired horse girls boring into her, Opera O lifted one hand to her forehead to cover her expression and muttered in a low voice, "Ahem... Boss Lady's observational skills are a little too strong..."
"So it's another attempt to get Boss Lady to enroll at Tracen Academy, huh? We've had way too many of those lately! Boss Lady won't agree, so take your bread and leave."
Gold Ship stepped right between the two sides from the flank, plastic bag in hand, her tall frame completely blocking Dyna from view.
As expected.
A helpless smile lingered on Dyna's face as she sidestepped out from behind Gold Ship. "That is indeed the case. Please head back. And if you really wanted to invite me, then at the very least the trainer ought to show up in person, shouldn't they?"
Her lips were still curved, and her voice remained soft and sweet, but her tone had already made it perfectly clear that Opera O and Meisho Doto were being shown the door.
"As expected... well, I sincerely apologize for disturbing you. But this has nothing to do with my retainer's trainer. I simply wanted to recruit an excellent horse girl for him, that's all. He has known nothing about this from start to finish."
Opera O admitted it openly and did not press further, which kept Dyna's first impression of her from turning too sour.
With Meisho Doto reduced to the role of a mobile shelf beside her, Opera O reached the door, then turned back and asked, "This time I ask as Opera O herself: what bread in this shop tastes the best?"
"Hmm... personally, I'd say the cream puffs."
Dyna answered while watching the two of them leave.
Bang!
The door had barely closed before the three inside heard a heavy thud, followed immediately by Doto's panicked apology.
"Waaah! I'm sorry, Opera O!"
"Ah... it's fine. You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"
Meisho Doto had tripped flat on nothing—as usual—and the bread she had been carrying against her chest had been utterly flattened beneath her body weight.
After all, light, fluffy bread could never hope to withstand the thousandfold crushing waves of Doto's misfortune.
"Boss Lady, this really can't keep going like this, can it? People come every day. You may not be annoyed, but I'm getting to the point where I want to throw them out."
Gold Ship had already begun hatching a plan in her head: before the shop opened tomorrow, she would hang a sign on the door.
It would read:
Trainers and horse girls who want to abduct the boss lady are not allowed inside.
Then she would persuade Big Sis Dream Journey to come serve as the shop's security guard. That way, no one would casually entertain such ridiculous ideas about the boss lady ever again.
Dyna shook her head and sat spinning lightly on the round stool, tapping the floor with her toes.
"The fact that so many trainers want to recruit me just means I'm pretty impressive, doesn't it?"
"Yes. Boss Lady is strong."
Oguri Cap wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, her gaze utterly certain. If not for the fact that her cheeks were still steadily working away as she chewed, the effect would have been even more convincing.
"The trainers who want me are all very capable too. But I don't like it. They would limit me. They would affect the life I have now. I know those trainers want me to win more races and earn greater honors, and that they'd work hard for that... but in the process, they'd also overlook how I feel."
"Trainers make a very natural assumption from the start—that every horse girl who becomes a horse girl wants to win more and more races until she stands atop the G1 throne. But I don't have that kind of drive."
Dyna wound a strand of chestnut hair, golden in the sunlight, around her fingertip and sighed softly.
"My debut race was for survival. France was because Miss Zhuofu helped me confirm my own ability. But after that? I... can't really see it. Honestly, I'm even starting to wonder why I let my sympathy run wild back then and made that promise to the little boy."
Some things only become clear after you take the time to savor them.
What had she really wanted when she did that?
She had absolutely no idea.
Oguri Cap's intelligence seemed to rise in direct proportion to the amount of chewing she did. "So if conditions allowed it, Boss Lady would want to find a trainer who could help her while she stayed outside the academy?"
"I guess that's about right? Trying to learn those courses on my own gives me a splitting headache... and when it comes to things like what sports brands to buy, or what kind of equipment I need, I'm completely in the dark."
The moment Dyna thought back to the dazzling wall of sports gear she had once seen in a superstore, her eyes began to spin again.
More importantly, even buying it in personal bulk was absurdly expensive.
And the better brands supplied Tracen Academy directly.
If ordinary people wanted them, they needed special channels.
Dyna now had a bit of money and a bit of fame—but those so-called special channels were sealed tight against her.
Maybe building ties with some of the great horse-girl families would make things easier. But the truly major houses were still far beyond the sort of people Dyna could realistically reach.
"Maybe... I should take a slightly crooked shortcut?"
She poked her cheek with one finger, quietly mulling it over.
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 115)
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 (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
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 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
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 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 27
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