Walking along the streets near Tracen Academy, Tokai Shizen quickly arrived at the location from her memory.
The shop door was still the same shop door, and as for the interior decoration...
Opening the door with the spare key, Tokai Shizen saw a clean and tidy small shop.
With untouched interior furnishings, and a layer of not-too-thick dust.
"Tamamo Cross hasn't been here recently..."
Saying this, Tokai Shizen turned her head to look at the stairs leading to the second floor.
There were still some slight indentations on the wall beside the stairs, marks left by Rudolph.
After looking at that mark for five seconds, Tokai Shizen's gaze shifted.
That place, for Shizen, was no longer somewhere she needed to pay much attention to...
With the intention of ignoring that mark, Tokai Shizen walked up to the second floor.
The second floor was as it always was, with only a bed board placed on top of wooden crates.
As for the bedding on the bed board, it was already folded and covered with a dust cloth.
"Tamamo really did a lot; it seems I need to thank her properly."
Saying this, Tokai Shizen held her chin with one hand and carefully surveyed the large space on the second floor.
When she lived there before, Tokai Shizen hadn't felt uncomfortable,
but considering her daughter would also be moving in.
"A wardrobe, a simple shower facility, and..."
Tokai Shizen fell silent, listing one item after another that needed to be prepared.
And when she listed the last item...
"Hmm, it seems I don't have enough money..."
Tokai Shizen fell into the despair of a working adult.
Although Tokai Shizen had earned a good amount of money in Europe,
if one were to consider Tokai Shizen's health, the money she needed to pay back Roman,
and the money for opening the store, the remaining funds might not even be enough for a slight renovation of the storefront.
After all, in Europe, Tokai Shizen adopted the method of closing once everything was sold out.
So, even though she had saved a good sum of money,
now, to reopen this store and buy necessities for her daughter's life, it could only be said to be just enough.
This was even more so considering Tokai Shizen also had to find a way to repay her sister for the expenses of taking care of Tokai Teio over the years.
If she couldn't even properly repay these expenses...
Thinking of this, Tokai Shizen made a decision:
"I'll give the money to Tokai-nee first. Teio is six years old now, and basic training and talent testing need to begin. If there's a shortage of money, it will probably be very difficult... As for furniture, I'll put that off for now."
All fated encounters are the result of adult calculations.
After researching the issues concerning her own expenses, Tokai Shizen no longer had any thoughts of adding furniture.
[...]
The long conversation continues—including Mochizuki being picked up, the dinner, the night conversation, the next day at school—
and ends at the following line:
Tokai Teio, looking at the blackboard, didn't notice the gaze from beside her.
At Tracen Academy, a document was once again delivered.
Due to its nature, this document was placed directly on Rudolph's desk.
Looking at the document bag wrapped in kraft paper,
Rudolph Symboli merely pushed up her glasses, then opened the document bag.
Then, the name of the document appeared before Rudolph's eyes.
[Peak Series Event Application]
The application for a new series of races requires the approval of Tracen Academy, JRA, and the Uma Musume Association before it can be launched.
And with Akikawa Tokai slacking off most of the time,
this document would usually be sent simultaneously to Rudolph Symboli, as the representative of the Uma Musume,
and Hayakawa Tazuna, the Chairperson's secretary.
"A new event, huh…"
Rudolph Symboli said, looking around.
After confirming that all other members of the Student Council Room were still attending classes normally,
she began to read through the document.
After the first read-through,
Rudolph realized that this new series of races was extremely beneficial for Uma Musume,
as any Uma Musume would achieve great growth in this series.
However, due to a past incident,
Rudolph Symboli still decided to re-examine the document from the beginning with the idea of checking it again.
Then, Rudolph noticed where the problem lay.
"No… restrictions?"
No restrictions on the interval between participating races,
no restrictions on training content.
The absence of such crucial content left Rudolph silent.
Pondering the situation presented in this document.
After more than ten seconds,
Rudolph Symboli finally stood up.
She had to go find Hayakawa Tazuna to confirm whether there were any errors in this new series event application document.
If there were no errors,
then this event application absolutely had to be rejected.
After all, judging by the nature of this event,
it was highly likely to be a series that completely disregarded the Uma Musume's condition.
-------------------------------
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