Time passes and circumstances change... Several years later, Invincible came to this cemetery alone. With her exceptionally clear memories, she arrived at the tombstone she was looking for, only to find a lonely figure who had arrived long before her.
"...Aunt Palmer."
"Invincible, you're here too."
At Invincible's soft call, Mejiro Palmer, who had been here for a while, silently turned her head. Compared to a few years ago, she seemed a bit more haggard. However, upon seeing the arrival of her proud niece, Palmer still tried her best to show a gratified smile, taking the initiative to give up her spot and saying softly, "I guessed you'd be here around this time. I'll leave this to you... Your parents must be very happy to see you."
"Mm..."
Invincible walked forward without a word and took her place. In front of the two closely placed tombstones, she stared for a long time at the words clearly carved on them: "Beloved Father: Tomb of Kitano Ryuichi" and "Beloved Mother: Tomb of Mejiro Ardan." A hint of imperceptible sadness flashed in her vacant eyes, and then she silently began the ritual of paying respects.
Lighting candles, adding incense, weighing down paper money... every step, she had done countless times, but each time she was incredibly serious, as if she was no longer willing to be indifferent to her mother's final tenderness as she had been in the past. Anything related to her parents, she would no longer be careless about.
All the steps were completed. With the ashes of the burning paper money dancing in the air under the flames... Palmer, on the side, after bowing three times to the tombstone with her again, finally lowered her hands and asked her in a deep voice, "So, have you decided to retire?"
"Mm, I think I have fulfilled my parents' expectations for me." Invincible, with her hands down, looked at her parents' tombstone in front of her. A bitter smile couldn't help but appear on her face as she said in a slightly self-deprecating low voice, "Actually, I don't know what my parents' expectations for me were... They never told me what goals they wanted me to achieve."
"No, to be precise, I don't even know if they ever saw me as a horse girl. In their eyes, I was just their child. Is everything I'm doing now really what they wanted to see?"
"At the very least, I think their spirits in heaven would be very gratified to see you so outstanding," Palmer said comfortingly to her niece, who now only showed her true side in front of her.
Perhaps no one could have imagined that two people as fragile as glass would give birth to a true "Horse King." And this "Horse King," created by their common genes, possessed a willpower and a strong physique that were tougher than anyone else's.
The cruelty of the challenges in this land of China was completely different from that in Japan, Europe, and America. If she had to describe it, it was closer to the races in the United States. But what was different was that the cruelty of the American races was reflected in the compact Triple Crown and race schedule. The battle-hardened horse girls often did not have much time to rest before they had to brace themselves for the next important race.
But here in China, the cruelty of the races was reflected in the unprecedentedly long tracks! The 3600-meter race, which was the limit in Japan, was not the limit on this land! The ultra-long races of six thousand, eight thousand, and even twelve thousand meters were a "Shura Field" that could be called cruel to the extreme.
However, inheriting the bloodline of the Mejiro family, and the willpower that had been tempered through countless hardships and challenges, had allowed her to display an astonishing strength on these cruel tracks! She had not only achieved excellent results in short-distance races, but had also won one crown after another in these cruel ultra-long-distance races.
And after winning the championship of China's "National Speed Horse Girl Championship" for three consecutive years, she, who had already won 27 victories, finally announced her retirement at the end of this year. And with her strength and record that looked down upon the heroes on the racetrack, she had indisputably won the title of "Horse King."
And all of this was not the reason why Palmer admired her excellent niece the most. It was the personality under her cold exterior, which was almost identical to her younger sister's and Kitano's...
"I heard that you also helped that horse girl named Gold and Silver Manor in that race, right? You even gave up your own race at the first moment, scooped her up, prevented a stampede, and protected her from a second injury, so that she could return to the racetrack, didn't you?"
"...It was just that my reaction was fast. I had noticed that her condition was not right before, so I had been staring at her. When she was about to fall, I just took the opportunity to carry her to the outside of the track. That's all."
(Author's Note: Gold and Silver Manor is a real horse, a contemporary of Invincible. In 2009, it was euthanized after falling due to a fracture in a 12,000-meter race.)
However, faced with this matter that Palmer had brought up, she herself did not feel proud or complacent at all. On the contrary, her attitude of "I just did what I had to do" made the smile on Palmer's face even more moving. She couldn't help but murmur to herself, "...You're so much alike. You and your father are really cut from the same cloth in terms of personality. You both love to do these things that have no reward."
"Aunt Palmer..." Her tone was already beginning to sound a little helpless.
She was not a block of wood. Having been taken care of by her all these years, her emotional intelligence had also been constantly growing. She had gradually tasted the difference in her feelings for her parents—or to be precise, the difference in her aunt's feelings for her father.
After all, she was her elder, her mother's sister. She had seen her gaze at the photo of her parents at home with deep affection several times, sighing from time to time, murmuring to herself from time to time, as if she was talking to them in another world through the photo...
In the past, she had thought that her aunt was just simply missing her parents. But after occasionally overhearing some of her whispers, this thought of hers had changed.
Therefore, it was very obvious that the number of times her aunt had mentioned her father's name was significantly more than her mother's! Especially when combined with her vague memories of how, in the past, every time she had returned home after a long time, she would come to visit her at the first moment, and the complicated look in her eyes... it made her have to think in that direction.
But fortunately, she also seemed to know how to hide her inner feelings and not to destroy her sister's family. Therefore, every time she would go home for a few months and then disappear again.
And now, with her parents having passed away for a long time, for this little bit of feeling of her own aunt, besides helplessness, it was more of a sense of relief.
And after a quiet silence, it was finally she who took the initiative to break the silence. She turned her head and cast her gaze on her excellent niece and asked calmly, "So, what are your plans for the future?"
"...I've made an appointment with the horse king of Hong Kong, Golden Sixty. She's going on an expedition to Japan. I plan to take the same flight with her, to go to Japan for a trip, and to go back to the Mejiro home."
Now that she had lost her goal, she had fallen into an unprecedented emptiness and confusion. She did not know how to move forward, and she did not know what else was worth fighting for besides running.
She felt that this goal could at least not be found here. Perhaps a trip to the Mejiro home, to ask her elderly great-grandmother, could point her in some direction.
"Aunt Palmer, are you going back to the Mejiro home?"
"...I will go back. It's just that it will probably be a few days later than you."
And Palmer, under a long silence, shed all her coldness and falsehood, leaving only a heartfelt smile. Faced with the last niece she cared about in this world, she responded softly, "You and your friends go back to Japan and have a good time. I... after I've tidied up everything here, I'll go back and see you."
...She did not know that her separation from her this time would be their final parting. Just like she had not thought that her mother, after saying her last words of advice, would be separated from her forever.
Perhaps parting was so silent. You would never know if you could see the other person again after this separation.
Returning to the Mejiro home, the now-over-ninety-year-old matriarch, upon learning that her great-granddaughter who had been competing overseas had returned home, was also overjoyed and took the initiative to welcome her, back to her room in the Mejiro home.
This room had clearly been arranged for her by the matriarch long ago. It was cleaned by someone every day, and was always ready to be lived in. However, her gaze was immediately and completely attracted by a photo on the bedside table.
"This is..." She picked up the photo, a hint of emotion in her pupils. And the matriarch, who was now also in a wheelchair, was by her side, still full of love as she answered, "This is a photo of your parents when they were young... it's been more than ten years. I remember this was a photo they took together when they first met."
"...I've almost forgotten what they look like."
She silently looked at this photo, looking at the two who were smiling gently in the photo. Even if there had once been resentment and regret in her heart, but after experiencing countless storms, now seeing her closest relatives again, her heart, which had been quiet for who knows how long, was stimulated without any warning.
But this stimulation was not a heart-wrenching pain... but as if a gentle hand was gently stroking the wound in her heart, so unexpectedly, so heart-pounding. But just such a small action made her cry out in pain again.
What on earth... have I been running for? For my parents' expectations? For their spirits in heaven? But I... have never even heard them say what their expectations for me were!
What is everything I've done for? The status, prize money, and dignity I've won from one victory after another... what meaning does all of this have for me?
In the end, she was still the child who was escaping the pain, the one who had no one to love her... even when the pain was at its extreme, she had to swallow the hardship alone, grit her teeth and stand up again. Wasn't it because she knew too well that even if she cried and shouted, there would be no one to love her anymore?
Those safe harbors that could give her shelter... had all completely left her... her whole life, she had been forced to grow up, whipped by life, and unwillingly moved forward...
But to this day, what has she been trying to prove with her battered body? Even she herself did not know what she was craving.
"Tell me... Mom and Dad... please, please tell me..."
"Your expectations for me... what do you hope I will do... tell me... what kind of adult should I become?"
But she no longer had a chance to know. No one could tell her what to do next... she was completely lost.
...No, wait, there seems to be a beam of light? What is that light? It seems to be shining on me?
"Child, do you want to know?"
That voice... that figure... in a daze, Invincible, as a horse girl, vaguely recognized the figure in front of her. But before she could say anything in surprise, she only heard that goddess's voice penetrate time and space and say to her, word by word, "Now you have this opportunity. You can personally ask your parents all of this and resolve all the doubts in your heart. We will return your growth in pain to its original state and give you a chance to grow up again."
"If you are willing, then hold my hand. I will take you to a time and space where the people you want to see all exist."
At this very moment, faced with the goddess's outstretched hand, the tearful her, in a daze, finally hesitantly extended her own hand, and slowly held the goddess's helping hand, ready to go to the next world she did not know.
Before her consciousness completely blurred, the goddess's voice echoed in her mind again...
"Go and use your own hands to save the people you want to save. The life you want to have again depends only on whether you can grasp it, child."
...
"So I came to this world like this. Mom, you have to believe me!"
Returning to reality, she told everything she had experienced to the Mejiro Ardan in front of her. And faced with her dazed gaze, whether she was stunned or dumbfounded, she, realizing that her mother was still very confused about all of this, also bit her lip slightly and said again, "Mom, I know... you may not have any feelings for Dad yet. I also admit that I had misunderstood him in the past."
"But now, I have been in contact with him for so long. I can feel... he is not the kind of person I thought he was. He definitely loves you and me from the bottom of his heart. And he has definitely guessed my identity now!"
"Mom, you are the only one who knows his secret. And now, someone wants to snatch him away. Mom, the only thing I hope is that you don't let him be snatched away by other women. Otherwise, you will definitely regret it for the rest of your life!"
....
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