The time left for Saint King Halo and Teraizumi Shinji was already running short.
Before long, they would be facing their second G1 of the year.
With only a week remaining, Etsuna Shi Etsuko—the reporter who had once conducted a private pre–Japan Cup interview with Teraizumi Shinji and Offside Trap—came looking for them again.
This time, there was no academy arrangement behind it, no push from the student council. Etsuna Shi Etsuko had simply seen that Saint King Halo now had a real chance to achieve the Spring Triple Crown in its very first year of existence, and that alone had been enough for her to act.
Looking at the gentle reporter, Teraizumi sometimes felt that Etsuna Shi Etsuko and Hayakawa Tazuna shared certain similar qualities. So whenever she smiled softly, he always ended up seeing a trace of Tazuna in her.
"Teraizumi Shinji, Trainer?"
Seeing him staring blankly at her face, Etsuna Shi Etsuko seemed to think of something, her cheeks flushing faintly as she called out to him in a lightly reproachful tone.
"I'm here."
Very naturally, Teraizumi shifted his gaze to Offside Trap, who was also present. Out of nowhere, he realized it had been quite a while since he had seen Hayakawa Tazuna. Ever since the Osaka Hai, she had disappeared completely from view.
As for the slightly aggrieved look in Offside Trap's eyes, Teraizumi simply treated it as a trainee's encouragement for her trainer.
[Negative Emotion +50]
Beside him, Saint King Halo pouted.
The more time she spent around her trainer, the more clearly she understood that outside of training and racing, he was not the sort of person who readily indulged his trainees.
Which meant that many of Offside Trap's emotional appeals were destined to be futile. That made Saint King Halo find the situation a little amusing, yet at the same time it also made her feel strangely uncomfortable.
It was a kind of discomfort she had never felt before. She did not know why she felt that way—but since she had no one to ask, all she could do was bury it in her heart.
"This is really just meant to be a relaxed interview."
Noticing that Teraizumi had finally entered a state where he could be interviewed, Etsuna Shi Etsuko hurriedly said so, afraid he might turn too serious again and throw out another explosive remark.
After all… even though Saint King Halo had won the Osaka Hai, there were still plenty of trainers attributing the entire victory to nothing more than a lucky start from the gate. Some had even begun prematurely writing off her chances at long distance.
True, her performance in the Kikuka Sho had been decent. Etsuna Shi Etsuko herself did not understand the trainers' standards of judgment or the angles from which they viewed such things. Perhaps they each had their own reasoning, and perhaps they truly had seen signs that Saint King Halo was not suited for long distances.
But their words—
They really went too far.
Thinking that, Etsuna Shi Etsuko looked toward Saint King Halo.
Truthfully, before having any close contact with her, Etsuna Shi Etsuko's impression of Saint King Halo had included many labels like "spoiled" and "willful."
It was not mere prejudice. Saint King Halo had been a major contender during the Classic season, and she was now the Osaka Hai champion; there were plenty of videos and opinions about her online, many of which clearly showed her more temperamental side.
And yet, after meeting her properly now, Etsuna Shi Etsuko's instincts told her that perhaps this was actually a very lovable girl.
Everyone had a past, and that past always left its mark in one way or another. Etsuna Shi Etsuko had no intention of prying into Saint King Halo's past. But what she saw now was a girl still standing quietly at Teraizumi's side, gazing at his profile with complete trust in her eyes.
It was such a beautiful sight that, if she had had a camera in hand, she felt certain she would have captured it immediately.
She could see the trust in Saint King Halo's eyes. A girl born into a prestigious family, one who had once stood in a training yard and said those sharp words to countless trainers, had finally found a trainer to whom she could entrust her career.
And with the Osaka Hai victory, the man had responded to that trust and expectation with results. In Etsuna Shi Etsuko's eyes, they had not yet reached the level of a legendary trainer-trainee pair who would go down in history—but they already possessed the makings of one.
With that thought, she took out a small microphone and carefully clipped it onto Teraizumi, then blinked at him.
It was her signal that the interview was beginning.
Teraizumi nodded and switched it on.
The green light blinked on the microphone. Etsuna Shi Etsuko adjusted her expression and looked at him.
"Then let's begin. First of all, congratulations on Saint King Halo's successful Osaka Hai victory. Winning it with a running style she had not previously excelled at truly showed all the fans how much she has grown. So for the first question—and also something the fans care deeply about—Trainer Teraizumi, do you believe Saint King Halo's long-distance aptitude is enough to handle the Spring Tenno Sho?"
It was not an especially sharp question, nor an especially soft one. As an opening question, it struck a reasonable balance.
Hearing it, Teraizumi smiled, then looked at Saint King Halo and answered quietly.
"I think Halo's long-distance aptitude is more than enough for the Spring Tenno Sho. Saint King Halo is absolutely a versatile horse girl. Short distance, long distance, mile, middle distance—every one of those is within the range of races she can run."
There was not the slightest trace of modesty in that declaration. Etsuna Shi Etsuko could not help smiling wryly to herself.
Teraizumi Shinji was still Teraizumi Shinji.
"If I really had to put it another way," he continued, "what distance Halo excels at right now depends entirely on how I train her. As long as the training is adjusted properly and in time, I can make her fully suited to any distance."
Etsuna Shi Etsuko's gentle expression shifted at once. She looked at him deeply, but did not press further.
His answer, which at first sounded wildly arrogant, had turned warmer in its latter half—the burden had been placed squarely on the trainer's shoulders.
If she won, or at least performed brilliantly, it would prove that Saint King Halo really was a rare all-rounder.
But if she failed, and failed badly, then much of the criticism would fall directly on the trainer.
Because Teraizumi himself had said it.
Suppressing the respect rising in her heart, Etsuna Shi Etsuko asked her next question.
"In the interviews from the last two days, the pre-race commentary and fan polls showed that while many fans want to see Saint King Halo win the Spring Tenno Sho and continue toward the Spring Triple Crown, the overall view is still not especially favorable toward her chances. Do you have anything you'd like to say to the fans? Something to give them a little reassurance?"
Saint King Halo pressed her lips together and looked at her trainer.
The somewhat slow-to-react girl had not yet realized that, from the very first question, Teraizumi had already stepped in to shoulder the burden for her. All she felt was that hardly anyone believed in her—and that only strengthened her determination to prove herself.
She wanted to prove her trainer, too. She wanted to prove that he was a first-rate trainer, that even a horse girl like her—someone not especially suited to long distance—could still, in his hands, become exactly the kind of versatile runner he had described.
Within her grand goal were many smaller ones.
And now, proving Teraizumi's words had become one of them.
"As Halo's fans, I think you really don't need to care too much about outside voices. No one should understand better than you do the criticism Halo has endured all this way."
At those words, even Etsuna Shi Etsuko felt a faint ache in her heart.
Saint King Halo really had borne criticism she should never have had to bear. For a horse girl, that kind of thing struck hard, and all one could do was rely on one's own will to keep going.
"The fact that she was born into a prestigious family has made many people overlook the equally precious qualities she possesses. If anything, I think the trainers' lack of faith should only fuel our fighting spirit more."
Teraizumi smiled as he said it.
And that smile gave Etsuna Shi Etsuko an inexplicable sense of foreboding, to the point that she almost interrupted him.
"On any road, only a tiny few ever make it to the summit. If Saint King Halo and I have chosen to walk a road toward the peak, then it's only natural that we'll be judged by people who can do nothing but look up from below."
His voice was not loud, but it was firm.
Some conflicts did not fade just because one side grew stronger. On the contrary, strength often drew out even harsher opposition.
But Teraizumi was not worried.
Those trainers could do nothing but sneer and predict failure. That was all.
And he believed this girl—who had finally taken her first true step, who had already begun to climb—would answer all those who doubted her with the sharpest rebuttal possible: her results.
By the time Etsuna Shi Etsuko's figure disappeared through the doorway of the Polaris team lounge, Teraizumi finally had time to tidy up the table a little.
The past few days had not been crushingly busy, but to save himself some trouble he had set up a temporary little bed in the lounge. Strangely enough, even though it barely gave him room to turn over, he had slept surprisingly well there. It was not simply a matter of exhaustion—he just seemed not to be the sort of person too attached to his bed, and there was something about the new environment that had pleased him on a subconscious level.
Saint King Halo remained standing where she was, wanting to step forward and help him clean up, yet feeling that there was barely anything to do. He finished almost instantly anyway.
Watching his trainee standing there in what looked like a daze, Teraizumi could not help chuckling.
Ever since he had answered that question, Saint King Halo had remained in this strange half-distracted, half-not-distracted state. Etsuna Shi Etsuko had clearly noticed it too, which was why she had kept redirecting the questions back to Teraizumi.
After all, this was supposed to be a joint interview of trainer and horse girl. If only the trainer answered, the whole thing would feel strangely off.
Unfortunately, even by the end, Saint King Halo had failed to adjust her state, and the burden of answering had remained on the man alone.
"All right, stop spacing out. We can get ready for dinner now."
Seeing that dusk had already begun settling outside the window, Teraizumi shut the computer and looked toward Saint King Halo, who had been staring at him the whole time. There was a hint of helplessness in his tone.
"What's with you?"
Offside Trap and Narita Brian had both found her behavior a little odd as well, and when they heard Teraizumi ask directly, they both turned to look at her.
Had this been the Saint King Halo of old, she probably would have turned her head away haughtily and muttered things like Nothing or It's nothing.
But right now, it seemed she truly needed an answer.
After hesitating only briefly, she asked it outright in front of Offside Trap and Narita Brian.
"Do you really think I can win the Spring Tenno Sho?"
Teraizumi scratched his head.
Sometimes he could not help feeling that the length and hardship of one's racing career really did determine how mature a horse girl became. Saint King Halo and Offside Trap, for instance—no matter how anxious they were, the things they worried about, and the degree to which they worried, were fundamentally different.
Still, he did not find her question annoying.
In the future, he would likely take on horse girls from the Classic generation—or even girls who had not debuted yet. And when young horse girls who had never really tasted failure or hardship were suddenly made to face real challenges, they might falter even more than Saint King Halo was doing now.
Besides…
Teraizumi suddenly remembered the solitary figure he had seen on the viewing platform. When the girl had won the Osaka Hai with dignity and pride, that figure had stood there watching her for a long while before silently turning away.
She had offered no congratulations.
Not a single word of encouragement.
It was like that empty chair in the front row during the winner's stage.
She had missed that victory ceremony, just as she had effectively missed the whole process of her daughter chasing her dreams.
That beam of light the girl had always tried to grasp had, from beginning to end, never actually shone on her.
With all that in mind, Saint King Halo's current insecurity no longer seemed difficult to understand.
Teraizumi's smile softened a little, and he nodded with great seriousness.
"I guarantee it. You absolutely can."
A spark of life returned to the girl's expression.
Teraizumi might never know that what worried her was not whether she would lose the Spring Tenno Sho. The moment he had declared those bold words in front of the cameras, Saint King Halo had already resolved herself to answer that fierce faith with results.
If her trainer could believe in her that strongly, how could she possibly fail to answer that expectation?
The race she had once dreamed of most had ended in failure no matter what. But after the Osaka Hai, she had finally made peace with that part of herself, and in doing so she had found the courage to watch that nightmare-like Derby again.
That feeling of release—she understood too well what it meant to have one's dream shattered by one's own hand.
So now, the only thing left that could make her anxious—
Was the man who had finally placed her on the road she had chased for so long.
Watching her trainer walk out ahead first, Saint King Halo followed behind him and, in the blind spot where he could not see her, allowed herself the faintest smile.
The other two trainees at her side looked somewhat puzzled, but she did not care.
She simply followed quietly.
She had already confirmed the answer to whether she could live up to that expectation—
Even if the person answering her was the very source of the expectation she wanted to answer.
Even if she knew that his answer might have been nothing more than a spontaneous encouragement all the same.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
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Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 230
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Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
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Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
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The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 120
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 135
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 110
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
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My Harem Is Indescribable 90
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Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
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Transmigrated as Sukuna 75
Checking In in Demon Slayer 80
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 85
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 70
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 65
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 70
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 70
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 65
Why did they assign me to Uma 65
MYGO Beauties 65
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 55
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 65
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 45
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
The Uma Musume Who Became 40
I'm Definitely Not the King of 45
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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