The Student Council Office of Central Tracen.
Su Luo was sitting on that familiar sofa again.
And across from him sat the same familiar "Emperor."
Symboli Rudolf had one leg crossed over the other, one elbow propped on the desk, her palm supporting half her face. She stared at Su Luo with a puzzled look.
"Mr. Su Luo, why are you in such a hurry to leave? What are you trying to do?"
"…"
The way Symboli Rudolf spoke—soft, lingering—made Su Luo swallow.
"It's nothing. I just remembered there are important matters back in the countryside, so I planned to head back early."
"Is that so?"
Symboli Rudolf blinked, her pretty brows lifting slightly.
"But if you were simply going back, you wouldn't need to disguise yourself, right~? You could've just walked out the front gate openly and honestly."
Yeah, and you know exactly why I didn't!
Watching the student council president play dumb, Su Luo couldn't help but complain internally.
"Right, by the way."
Symboli Rudolf clasped her hands lightly and smiled at Su Luo with a bright, sunny expression.
"Since Oguri Cap has already taken the Japan Derby victory—about what we discussed at Chukyo Racecourse before—what do you think, Mr. Su Luo?"
Sigh.
Of course it came back to this.
Looks like there was no escaping it. He might as well answer properly.
"Didn't I say it back then? Even if Oguri won that race, I would only consider whether to join Central Tracen. Consider. Not 'join immediately.'"
"…"
Symboli Rudolf's smile stiffened slightly.
"...Mr. Su Luo, do you have concerns about the compensation? If you think the salary is too low, I can offer an even higher price."
The moment she tried to "buy" him with an even higher salary, Su Luo's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Still trying to bribe me with wages?
Do I look like that kind of person?
No. He needed to make this clear.
"Miss Luna—let me be honest."
"I don't want to work at Central Tracen."
"Wha…?"
Symboli Rudolf's eyes widened.
"Why? Is it really because the treatment isn't good enough? We can discuss the terms! There's no need to reject it outright, Mr. Su Luo."
"It's not about待遇—compensation, Miss Luna."
Su Luo shook his head.
"I think working at Central Tracen, as it is now, has no future."
"…?"
Hearing him say that, Symboli Rudolf's surprise deepened.
"How can working at Central be considered 'having no future'? Mr. Su Luo, you're joking."
Her tone sounded normal, but Su Luo could still catch a faint, barely noticeable wavering underneath.
Good. That's it.
Inside, Su Luo wore the expression of a man whose plan was going perfectly.
To everyone else, a job at Central looked like a guaranteed future—so it was hard to come up with a "reasonable" excuse to refuse.
But Su Luo was different.
From the beginning, he had no intention of accepting this job.
So what he needed wasn't a graceful reason to decline.
What he needed was to make the HR in front of him—Miss Luna—hate him.
And very quickly, Su Luo had an idea.
Symboli Rudolf was the student council president—meaning she represented Central Tracen's face and pride…
Once you considered that, things got a lot easier.
He just needed to say something that smeared Central Tracen.
"Miss Luna… no, I should say: 'Emperor'…"
"Do you think the Central Tracen of today is… correct?"
Facing Symboli Rudolf, Su Luo asked.
"Mr. Su Luo… what are you getting at now…?"
Symboli Rudolf's eyes narrowed slightly. The easygoing expression on her face faded, replaced by a gradually sharpening seriousness.
"How do you evaluate the fact that a countryside horse girl can defeat Central's horse girls?"
Su Luo tossed out the question first.
"…Don't tell me you think staying in the countryside is better than being in Central?"
Symboli Rudolf immediately sensed what he was implying.
"I admit Oguri Cap is indeed an extremely powerful horse girl! But…! In the end, she's only an exception. There are so many horse girls in the countryside—yet wasn't she the only genius to emerge? The future is still here in Central! Oguri Cap is just a special case!"
"A special case? Heh."
A smile appeared on Su Luo's face—one that Symboli Rudolf couldn't quite read.
"Oguri Cap isn't a special case."
"Don't forget—right now in Central, there's another countryside horse girl who's active too~"
"Wha…?"
"Nishino Cross—no, you might not have heard that name. Let's use a name that fits better."
Su Luo looked at Symboli Rudolf with complete composure and spoke the horse girl's name.
"Tamamo Cross."
"You've heard that name at least, right~?"
At that name, Symboli Rudolf's expression turned subtle.
Of course she knew Tamamo Cross: the ash-gray horse girl who had been racking up prize money like a maniac in the first half of the year, hailed by the media as the "White Lightning," a rising star.
As student council president, how could she not know that name?
But… she really only knew the name.
And what puzzled her even more was why Su Luo was bringing her up now…
Very quickly, Su Luo told her why.
"Tamamo is also a horse girl I invested in."
"?!"
Completely ignoring the shock on Symboli Rudolf's face, Su Luo continued.
"Tamamo and Oguri Cap—two horse girls in a row became top-class horse girls under my investment."
"And the Central horse girls you've placed your hopes in couldn't defeat the two of them. So what does that say?"
"What if the countryside has more star horse girls like them—just waiting for someone to dig them up?"
"Because of the countryside's facilities, good seedlings can't break out. They can't receive excellent training, and so their talent gets buried…"
"Isn't that situation—caused by the Central Tracen of today?"
"So…"
"I won't come to Central."
"I'm going to take my talent and shine in the countryside!"
"I'm going to become an investor who helps others!"
Su Luo patted his chest and declared it earnestly, as if every word came straight from the deepest part of his heart.
But only he knew the truth.
Most of that whole speech…
…was absolute bullshit he made up on the spot.
....
My Patreon : patreon/RuneA
If you want to read the novel in advance, you can subscribe for early access. I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in
I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length. If you're following a particular series, please wait your turn a little
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it