Inside Leopardstown Racecourse.
A man and a girl walked side by side across the turf at an easy pace.
Kuroha held a notebook. Every few steps he stopped, pointing out a rise in the ground here, an unusual patch there, patiently explaining it all to Oguri Cap.
"Oguri, look here."
Kuroha crouched and pointed at a shallow depression in the grass near the third corner.
"The drainage on the inside line here is worse than elsewhere. If it rains on race day, this spot will be extremely slick."
"If someone tries to squeeze you down to the rail at that moment, you slow down and give up the position if you have to. But you do not force your footing on this patch. Got it?"
"Oh…" Oguri Cap listened carefully.
"And here, and there…"
To make sure this ash-gray girl—whose brain sometimes ran in very straight lines—understood completely and engraved every detail into her head, Kuroha didn't take the easy route with a quick verbal rundown.
He chose the dumbest method.
And also the most effective one.
He walked it with her.
One lap, two laps, three… until they'd walked more than ten full circuits, measuring the two-thousand-plus meters of turf with their own feet again and again. Only once he was sure Oguri Cap had it memorized did they finally stop.
…
In a corner of the grandstand.
The two of them, finished with their walking drill, sat shoulder to shoulder in an empty section of seats, resting their legs.
Below, out on the course, plenty of foreign horse girls were still running acclimation work.
Even though Oguri Cap had left the track and come up into the stands, her lack of fame in Europe meant she wasn't swarmed like Somalz and the others.
That rare quiet let them sit close together, silently watching the scene in front of them.
"Oguri, drink some water and take a breather. We'll go back down in a bit."
Kuroha kept studying the opponents' data below while handing Oguri Cap a bottle of water.
Oguri Cap took it and drank, then tilted her head. Those clear eyes lingered on Kuroha's profile for a long time.
"Trainer… you're different from other people," she suddenly said at last.
"Hm?" Kuroha twisted open his own bottle and turned, puzzled. "Why do you say that?"
"…"
Oguri Cap didn't answer right away. She thought seriously, searching for words.
"Trainer knows a lot. You understand a lot of things, and…"
As she spoke, she scratched her head and got stuck.
"Knowing a lot—doesn't Kitahara… Roppei-senpai know a lot too?" Kuroha asked with a smile.
"It's not the same."
Oguri Cap fell silent for a moment, then shook her head.
She looked into Kuroha's eyes, clumsy in phrasing but completely sincere.
"I don't know how to explain it… but I can tell that you're not just moving forward because of dreams and responsibility."
"Kitahara and Roppei-ojisan, they're good too, but it feels like… something's missing."
"Mm…"
The ash-gray girl sank into thought.
Replaying everything she'd felt during this time—something uniquely warm.
It wasn't blazing hot, but it was steady and endless, like…
Suddenly, an image surfaced in her mind: back in Kasamatsu, at her family's onigiri shop, the gentle way someone would stroke a chick's head as it settled down.
That was…
"…Like?" Oguri Cap's eyes lit up, as if she'd found the answer.
She turned, wearing a blank, innocent face, and dropped a bomb.
"Trainer, do you like me?"
"Pff—cough, cough, cough!"
Kuroha nearly choked to death mid-sip.
He coughed hard a few times, then stared at the girl in front of him—pure as can be, having no idea what kind of dangerous words she'd just said—and pressed a hand to his forehead in helpless defeat.
"…Idiot."
Kuroha reached out and flicked her forehead with a sharp, annoyed tap.
"If you want to call it 'like,' then it's liking this job. Liking being a trainer."
"It's love for the profession, got it?"
"Oh! Ohhh! Mm-hm, mm-hm!" Oguri Cap nodded rapidly, ears bouncing. "Yeah, yeah! That's it—liking… work! That feeling!"
She lifted one finger and analyzed it seriously.
"Kitahara and Roppei-ojisan don't have that feeling!"
Of course they didn't…
Kitahara—because he'd never met a star horse girl strong enough to carry his dreams—had his passion worn down by dull routine, even falling into a period of self-loathing and collapse.
Roppei Ginjirou had once been a trainer full of hot blood too, but under cruel competition and repeated blows, he'd thoroughly "rotted" in Central Tracen, drifting with the current.
Left so far behind by his friend Hideto Naise that he couldn't even see the dust.
Some people never had that "love" to begin with.
Others fell into ruin after losing it.
But Kuroha was different.
From the moment he arrived in this world of horse girls, becoming a trainer wasn't just a goal—it was his dream.
For every horse girl, every run, and the profession itself, he carried reverence and a fierce, unwavering devotion.
Unlike Kitahara and Roppei Ginjirou—
Even back when Kuroha had first set foot in Kasamatsu, even if he truly hadn't been able to find an exceptional horse girl…
He still would've poured everything into raising an ordinary one and helping her climb to the very top.
Even before he'd become a trainer, before his system activated and gave him all kinds of abilities and knowledge—
His goal had been the same: to become the best trainer in the world, studying and striving for it with everything he had.
Never drifting.
Never accepting mediocrity or an ordinary life.
Only to go one step further on the path of being a trainer, and to help these adorable, stubborn horse girls fulfill their dreams.
That had always been Kuroha's way.
Simply by continuing to practice it and carry it through, he'd become sharply different from Kitahara and Roppei Ginjirou.
Kuroha listened quietly to Oguri Cap's words, then gently reached out and pinched her pale, soft cheek.
"Huh… mm?" Oguri Cap squinted her right eye, looking at him in confusion.
"Then… Oguri, do you think that's a good thing?" Kuroha asked softly.
"…I don't know… but I like it," she answered honestly.
She liked the feeling of being valued—of being treated with complete sincerity.
Kuroha paused, then the smile in his eyes deepened.
"Then from now on, I'll work even harder. I'll do better, so you all like it even more."
"Yeah!" Oguri Cap clenched her little fist, face glowing with excitement. "Then I'll work hard training, and work hard racing, so Trainer likes it more too!"
They looked at each other and smiled, the atmosphere warm and fired with spirit.
Even if…
Between the two of them, their word choices were kind of a mess. If anyone else heard it, they'd absolutely get the wrong idea.
…
Time flowed on.
The three days of public training vanished in a blink, filled with probing between camps and nonstop information gathering.
And Ireland's unpredictable weather—just as Lisi had predicted—added the greatest variable of all to this summit clash.
The night before the race, the downpour arrived right on schedule.
Not like a summer thunderstorm that came and went in a rush—
This rain carried Ireland's particular chill and lingering persistence, drizzling all the way into the next morning without the slightest intention of stopping.
All of Leopardstown Racecourse was swallowed by a gray curtain of rain.
September 14.
The G1 Irish Champion Stakes was about to begin!
(End of Chapter)
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