"You're seriously asking for a mock race against an Uma Musume who just stepped off a fourteen-hour flight to Paris?"
"Sea the Stars, that's just dirty."
Dream Weaver had no intention of accepting the challenge.
She really had only come to scout the track; in a few moments, she'd be heading back to the hotel to sleep off the jet lag. There was no way she was going to race Sea the Stars in this state.
Her expression went rigid, and Sea the Stars—clearly choked up and unable to find a retort to defend herself—finally just shouted out in desperation.
"How was I supposed to know that!"
"I'm just kidding. Don't get worked up."
Dream Weaver realized that Sea the Stars was actually quite an interesting girl, mostly in the way she was fun to tease.
A simple, offhand comment was enough to provoke a massive reaction.
It was the same with that childish reverse psychology earlier; she was trying her best, but she clearly wasn't cut out for the role of a commanding, dignified villain.
Perhaps only an idiot like Hishi Miracle would actually fall for those kinds of provocations.
"Who are you calling childish!"
Watching Sea the Stars puff out her cheeks and hiss at her, Dream Weaver blinked, then offered a somewhat sheepish apology.
"Sorry. I accidentally let my inner thoughts slip out."
"Don't apologize for that!"
She seemed genuinely fuming now. Sea the Stars' cheeks were visibly flushed, and her breathing had grown heavy and ragged.
Why does it feel like the more I see through her, the more she drifts toward being a comedy act? Dream Weaver wondered.
Shaking her head, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a milk candy she'd originally intended to use to soothe Hishi Miracle, tossing it over to Sea the Stars.
"Consider it a peace offering."
Looking down at the prominent White Rabbit logo on the wrapper, Sea the Stars froze.
She caught the candy but didn't eat it right away. Instead, she held it up, showing it to Dream Weaver.
"When I was little, my mother used to bring me these candies all the time. She told me it was the taste of home."
"They have export versions now, so they aren't as hard to find as they used to be, but this one you gave me... it's the original, isn't it?"
Sea the Stars pointed to the script on the wrapper. She had never expected to receive such a candy from Dream Weaver's hand, and her expression softened into something more sincere.
"Did you prepare this specifically for me?"
The words that tumbled out were in a tongue other than English or Japanese.
"I used to have an Uma Musume by my side who wouldn't work hard unless she got her sweets. She's grown up a lot since then, but the habit of carrying treats around just stuck with me."
Though she hadn't used the language in a long time, the words came to Dream Weaver without a hint of rust.
It was a rare treat to meet another girl who understood the language, and her enthusiasm for the conversation sparked.
"As for why it's this brand... I actually used to be quite fond of them myself."
The "past" Dream Weaver referred to went back to her previous life in the orphanage.
Back then, these milk candies were a rare bit of sweetness in a hard life. As long as Hishi Miracle gave her an excuse to keep sweets around, her mind instinctively drifted back to these.
To Sea the Stars, however, the answer didn't sound like anything special; she assumed Dream Weaver had simply happened across them before.
She had read Dream Weaver's entire resume and knew her background had no connection to that country, so she didn't assume they shared a homeland. As a "genius" herself, Sea the Stars took it as a matter of course that a world-class talent like Dream Weaver would be multilingual.
"Hishi Miracle... what a lucky girl."
Sea the Stars held the candy up to her eyes and spoke softly.
She expertly peeled the wrapper and popped the candy into her mouth, rice paper and all. She sat with the familiar milky fragrance for a long moment before speaking again.
"I know all about your story. Do you want to hear mine?"
"I guarantee this is intel you won't find through any official channels. It might even help you when we eventually face off at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe."
For Uma Musume of similar caliber, the information war was often the deciding factor.
Sometimes, finding a psychological weakness through a rival's past was more effective than knowing their running habits.
According to Sea the Stars' current framing, she was revealing her past to ensure a "fair fight" between them.
But Dream Weaver wasn't blind. Seeing how long Sea the Stars had stared at that candy before speaking, it was clear she simply wanted someone to listen to her story.
Without calling her out, Dream Weaver struck a pose of rapt attention.
"I was born in Ireland, but my mother wasn't a local Uma Musume. Because of her work, she was always busy, constantly traveling the world. Only in the gaps between trips would she come home and bring me a milk candy with a white rabbit on it, telling me it was the taste of home."
"Sometimes I'd wonder what that 'home'—a place I'd never even seen—really meant. Was she always away because her home wasn't in Ireland? Or was it that, for her, Ireland could never be home?"
"To understand her—no, maybe just to get her to acknowledge me—I taught myself the language of that homeland."
"Because I'm a genius, I mastered the language just as quickly as I did the art of running. But things moved faster than my studies. Before I could even ask her about that home, I found out the real reason she was never around."
Sea the Stars looked up at the gloomy December sky of Paris and sighed.
"Unlike Japan, Europe has a longer history of established noble houses. Rather than gathering at an academy like Tracen, the elite families prefer to make their own names echo through the racing world."
"And the disputes between those families are, naturally, much more intense."
"My mother was once the champion of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Through sheer force of will, she carved out a place for herself in Europe, etching her name and her house among the countless old dynasties."
"But as an outsider, her progress wasn't smooth. That's why she was out every day, trying to expand her influence."
"And as a genius, there was something I could do for her that was far more helpful than learning a language."
"That was to become the second champion of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in our family's history."
"Sea the Stars. That's the name Mother thought of while gazing at the heavens one night. I think she must have poured all her hopes into it when she named me."
"The brightest star in the night sky. If I could become an Uma Musume that radiant, then maybe Mother wouldn't have to run herself ragged for the family anymore."
Dream Weaver was stunned. She hadn't expected that, in a way, Sea the Stars was actually quite similar to herself.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.