"You know why you've been summoned, don't you?"
"Yes."
That day, I was called to the Director's office in the morning and stood up straight in front of the Director and Tazuna-san.
The Director looked confused, while Tazuna-san had a serious expression.
"Then, let's confirm the first point. Two new students belonging to Team Kitalpha have applied to withdraw, and you have accepted it... There's no mistake about this, is there?"
"Yes. There is no mistake."
Yes, the reason I was summoned to the Director's office was simple. The two new students I had accepted into Team Kitalpha about three weeks ago had requested to withdraw yesterday. And I had accepted their request. That's why I was called here.
As I nodded calmly, Tazuna-san furrowed her brow slightly and spoke.
"Let me confirm again... You did not impose an excessively harsh training regimen on the two new students to meet the team's required number of members, which you have never met before, and then drive them away... There is no such fact, is there?"
"No. There is not."
I answered that question calmly as well. Then, Tazuna-san let out a deep sigh.
"T-r-a-i-n-e-r... I've read your daily reports and have a rough idea of the situation. However, the Director wanted to hear the story directly from you, which is why you were called. Please explain."
"Yes."
At Tazuna-san's prompting, I began to speak. To explain what I had done over the past three weeks.
Even for horse girls who are at the level to enter Tracen Academy, they are all pretty much on the same level, unless they have outstanding talent or have already been seriously training.
The future of a horse girl's life can be said to be determined by how much they can train under a trainer's guidance before their debut race and how much more they can train to prepare for the many races that follow. Of course, this is within the bounds of not getting injured.
So, I immediately started training the two new students I had welcomed to the team.
Of course, I couldn't suddenly start them on the same level of training as Urara and the others. They would collapse in a few days. Besides, King's race was coming up, so I first started with the usual physical ability checks and spent about a week probing the limits of the two new students.
After that, while being careful not to cause injury, I began training them by gradually increasing the load, so they could surpass their performance from the day before.
I couldn't push them too hard until their bodies were more developed. So, unlike when I first took in King, whose body was already somewhat complete, I didn't push them to the point of feeling like they were going to throw up.
Still, muscle soreness was a daily occurrence, and I had them run to the point where they could barely stand immediately after training, but not to the point where fatigue would accumulate.
For the first few days, the new students were all smiles. They were hesitant to have me check their muscles all over, so I had Rice do it instead. Since she could only check visually, I took a large safety margin, and they didn't get injured.
I also made sure to push them right to their limits based on their usual behavior, and I told them that the severe muscle soreness they were experiencing was only temporary until their bodies were more developed. I also communicated with them during and between training sessions. I even cooked them carrot hamburgers to celebrate their joining the team.
Based on the feel of training them for a short period, I roughly decided on a training menu to work on until their debut race.
Since the immediate goal was their debut race, I thought about how much training they would need to get there. I calculated the approximate training volume by reverse-engineering the physical abilities needed to win first place from the times and race videos of previous debut races.
Although it was only a prediction until their debut race, I also talked to them about how much faster they would become and how much stamina they would gain if they followed the training menu for the next three months. And I told them that if the training menu was insufficient or too tough, I would revise it and increase or decrease the load.
The immediate goal was their debut race, but I planned to have the turf horse girl challenge one of the Junior-class G1 races held in December. As for the dirt horse girl, based on the race schedule, if she won her debut, I planned to have her run in pre-open and open races, and then challenge various G1 races when she became a Classic-class horse girl.
I told them that while powerful rivals would emerge from teams like Rigil and Spica, we would work hard to win.
I was definitely full of enthusiasm. While focusing on training Urara and the others more than ever, I was excited about what kind of horse girls the new members would grow into.
I thought I would be swamped with five team members, but I already had the training know-how for Urara and the others. So, I was training them with less of a burden on me than I had anticipated. Urara, in particular, was overjoyed to have her first juniors...
The rest is a simple story.
While they could handle the physical fatigue, the two new students, with their spiritual fatigue still unrecovered, requested to withdraw to protect themselves after being confronted with a future outlook.
Putting aside Rice, who had just recovered from an injury, Urara and King still run to their limits every day and often get muscle soreness. Seeing their seniors, and knowing the path they were about to embark on, they must have decided that they couldn't handle Team Kitalpha's training methods.
Our training places a strong emphasis on efficiency, but that means we train them thoroughly in a short amount of time. Our style is to have them give their all during training so they can't even do self-training afterward.
Well, what can I say... In short, I was an idiot who had become so accustomed to Urara and the others that I judged everything based on them.
Looking back, Urara, whom I trained from scratch, wasn't trained this thoroughly at first. In fact, I was in a constant state of trial and error, trying to figure out how to train her, and I devised a variety of training methods to keep her from getting bored. Because of that, I don't think I pushed her physically or mentally.
But now it's different. Through training Urara and the others, I've learned how to train horse girls and how to push them. As a result, while I adjusted to the new students' physical abilities, I was so determined to train them as much as possible from the start that the two new students felt they couldn't keep up.
And... they told me that I was treating them differently from Urara and the others. It's natural that there would be a difference due to the length of our relationship, but they said it was clearly more than just that.
By the time I noticed something was off with the new students and decided I should either reduce their training or have a talk with them, it was too late.
I thought I could train them to their limits without them getting injured. However, the two new students didn't think so.
Putting aside the first week when I was looking for their limits, after that, I had them run every day until they were wobbly. This was before we had built any trust.
Urara and I had walked this path together, hand in hand.
Rice was originally a girl who could push herself to the limit, to the point where she could win the Kikuka Sho on her own.
King and I already knew each other through Urara, and she was already developed enough to challenge the Classic Triple Crown.
I started at full throttle without any of that. The two new students must have thought, "If it's this bad just after we joined, won't it get even worse?"
Once they thought that, there was nothing I could do. I promised to improve the training menu and told them I would slow down the pace, but once trust is broken, it's not easily rebuilt.
And the first deadline for trainers and horse girls to decide on an assignment, the end of April, was approaching. With less than a week left, the two new students chose to find a different trainer or team rather than stay with our team.
I mistakenly thought that a trusting relationship would naturally develop as we spent time together through training, and so I was called here by the Director and Tazuna-san to explain the situation.
After finishing my meeting with the Director and Tazuna-san, I left the Director's office. I bought a hot coffee from a vending machine, sat down on a nearby bench, and let out a big sigh. I popped the tab on the can, making a "clink" sound, and took a big gulp.
"Phew..."
I felt a sense of regret for what I had done. I thought I was being careful not to fall into a trap by getting overconfident, but I felt like I was already at the bottom of a pit.
But I couldn't stay dejected. King's spring Tenno Sho was coming up, and above all, I needed to do something for the two new students who had withdrawn.
(Considering the distance aptitudes and preferred racing styles of those two... who would be a good fit to take them on...?)
I thought of the faces of my juniors who seemed suited to train the two who had withdrawn and decided to at least ask them to consider taking them on. Although our time together was only for three weeks, if they found a trainer, I would also need to hand over the data and training notes I had compiled.
But right now, I just don't feel like getting up from this bench. It feels like something heavy has been placed on my shoulders and back.
The Director and Tazuna-san didn't blame me for anything they heard. I had submitted daily reports since accepting the new students and had reported on what kind of training we were doing.
When I explained the situation, they even said it must be that they weren't a good fit for Team Kitalpha's training policy.
But just because I wasn't blamed doesn't mean it's okay.
The reason for my failure was simple. I started too fast, and that's all there is to it.
My judgment that I wasn't pushing them past their limits was just my opinion. To the horse girls who were actually told this, it was coming from a trainer they hadn't yet built a trusting relationship with.
A goal that can be summed up as "train thoroughly and aim for a G1" has a thorny path to get there. What happens when you push them to the point of being wobbly every day without a trusting relationship strong enough for them to believe they can achieve the goal?
This is the result.
(I have to use this failure for the next time... next... the next time...)
If I have a chance to use this experience, it will be when I welcome new team members. Should I look for new girls until the last minute of the assignment period, or should I accept girls who join midway like Rice and King, or should I use this experience for next year?
Not being able to provide training that suited the personalities and styles of the new students is a huge regret. But then a part of me thinks, "Isn't it easier for the horse girls to grow if I find ones that fit my training style?"
"My seniors also went through things like this, huh..."
"Yeah, that's right. We've been through a lot of problems, too."
So, I was genuinely surprised when there was a response to my sighing words.
I looked up, almost jumping, and saw a senior trainer from Team Spica standing there with a wry smile.
"Can I sit here?"
"...Yes."
The senior sat down next to me, took a lollipop out of his pocket, and put it in his mouth. He offered me one as well, and I thanked him and took it. I also put the lollipop in my mouth. It was sweet, and my brain felt warm.
"I heard that the two new students you accepted this year withdrew yesterday? It's the talk of the town."
"Seriously...? The rumors spread that fast?"
He said it so bluntly that I reacted honestly. I smiled wryly while moving the lollipop around in my mouth.
"You're the topic of conversation, one way or another. What did the girls who withdrew tell you?"
"They said they couldn't keep up with our team's training policy and training."
"Ah... that's a pretty nostalgic story."
I gave the senior from Spica a puzzled look as he said that with a wry smile. I didn't think he was the type to rub salt in someone else's wounds, but his reaction was strange.
"Actually, I had a similar thing happen to me a long time ago, and the girls I was in charge of withdrew. They told me they couldn't keep up with my training policy."
He said with a wry smile that everyone except Gold Ship had left.
"Our team respects the horse girls' autonomy, and we give them a lot of freedom. But it seems that giving them that much freedom was a mistake... There was a time when the number of horse girls dropped to the point where we were on the verge of disbanding."
"Even a senior like you had that happen..."
"Yeah. I don't know how you see me, but it's a story you hear quite often as a trainer. You don't hear such stories about O'Hana-san... because she's so meticulous. But teams generally train five or more horse girls at the same time, so those kinds of problems are bound to come up."
When he said that, I understood that Toujou-san, who trains nearly 10 people at the same time, is truly an outstanding trainer.
"In your case, you took on Rice Shower, won the Arima Kinen, and suddenly had to form a team. You skipped over the normal experiences trainers have, and instead you've experienced a lot of things that aren't normal... It's all jumbled up."
"Jumbled up?"
"Yeah, it's jumbled up. Well, I can't really talk either."
The senior said that with a laugh, but he must be a complete trainer and a person if he's willing to come over and talk to me, a junior trainer, like this to show his concern.
...I truly can't thank him enough.
"Still, as a senior, I thought it would be nice to act like a senior to a junior once in a while."
He smiled awkwardly and stood up from the bench.
"Well, things like this are not uncommon. And my personal opinion is that you just have to keep going, not caring while still caring."
"...I see... that's helpful."
"I hope so. Well, I've bothered you enough."
He walked away, waving his hand lightly. I watched his back as he left and narrowed my eyes, looking into the distance while licking the lollipop.
"Don't worry about it because it's a common thing for trainers"—I can't just brush it off like that. But, I felt like the heavy weight on my shoulders had lifted a little.
After that, I went to the trainers' common area for the first time in a while. I nodded to a colleague who asked, "Is it true that the new students withdrew?" and I gave a lariat to another colleague who was trying to provoke me, not out of concern, but to motivate me. Then I found the junior I was looking for and brought up the two new students who had withdrawn.
"What!? I can scout the horse girls you've had your eye on, Senior!? And with your training know-how, even if it's just from the beginning of their training!?"
Then, a completely unexpected response came back. The junior I had asked, because I thought we'd be a good match, was so receptive that it confused me.
I had planned to choose two juniors who didn't have many horse girls they were training and have them take on one each, but...
"It would help me out, but... are you really sure?"
I don't think he's the type to just take the materials and then neglect the horse girl he takes on. But his reaction was so positive that I started to have a little doubt.
"I'm indebted to you, Senior, and you're approaching me because you think they might be a better fit for my training policy even if they weren't a good fit for yours, right? In that case, I'm completely fine with at least meeting them and hearing them out, regardless of whether I take them on or not."
"I'm okay with it, too. This year, I tried to scout two new students, but only one came. And a girl who runs on dirt won't overlap with the turf races my girl runs in... and most of all, the dirt training know-how of a senior who trained Haru Urara is a goldmine."
Hmm... My juniors are shrewd and reliable... Since this is a great opportunity, if they take them on, I'll give them more materials than I planned. They were girls I once accepted into the team. I want them to get as strong as possible without getting injured.
As I was thinking that, the two juniors lowered their voices.
"Besides, Senior, are you okay? You just took the withdrawal papers from your assigned girls and submitted them yesterday, right? I heard a rumor this morning that the two horse girls you accepted into the team this year ran away... Is it being spread from somewhere?"
"Yeah. I also heard about it from my seniors... ah, from the generation above you, Senior. They seemed to be talking about it very happily, though."
I nodded with a wry smile to my juniors, who spoke with concern.
"Didn't you know? I'm pretty much disliked by all the seniors except for a very small few."
"We know."
"We know."
"Oh, okay..."
Oh, right, of course, my juniors would know. They're even whispering about me as they look over here... As I was thinking that, my juniors laughed nonchalantly.
"Well, Senior, you completely dominated the G1 races last year, so it's understandable that you'd be disliked."
"At first, it was just Haru Urara's dirt races, right? Then you took on Rice Shower and formed a team, and then King Halo even joined and you're dominating turf races too, so of course you'd be disliked."
"You two, words aren't meant to be blunt. I get hurt, you know."
Seriously, who trained these juniors?
"Huh? Senior, your mentality isn't weak enough to get hurt by that, is it?"
"Stop joking."
Seriously, who trained these juniors?!
"Hah... honestly... talking to you guys makes me feel better... Alright, for now, please just meet them. And is it really okay for me to just give you the materials I made?"
Giving them money would be a big problem, and I was wondering if there was anything I could do... when they said.
"It's fine. Because if we can get your training know-how, even if it's just a little bit, it'll be a great reference for us to beat the horse girls you'll train in the future, right?"
"That's right. And if we can train a girl who has actually received your guidance, we'll have a good idea of your moves."
They said that with a laugh. It seems they are trying to gather information now to defeat the future horse girls I will train if I continue to be a trainer.
What a shrewd and reliable group of juniors... but aren't their plans a little too serious? Should I ask someone else even now?
But still, if they're willing to take them on, I'm sure the girls who left my team will become stronger. I believed that.
"Then... if you talk to them and feel like you're a good match, I'll be counting on you to take care of them."
Saying that, I bowed deeply to the two juniors.
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