T/N: Huge thank you for Jakkrapong Intamin for supporting me, I really appreciate it, thank you.
Chapter 47
An expression of utter disbelief instantly appeared on Kitasan Black's face.
Her eyes widened, her mouth fell open, and she tried several times to speak, but nothing came out — it felt like something was stuck in her throat.
After a long moment, she finally stammered, completely flustered:
"Terminated the contract… fired…? Why?
"Satono Diamond… her results were really good.
"Trainer said she already had two wins and two second places…
"Ah, now it should be three second places, plus two third places.
"Anyone who finishes in the top five appears on the notice board. With results like that… why would her trainer get transferred away?"
"Well…"
Vodka-senpai thought for a moment.
"Do you remember? At lunch on race day, T.M. Opera O-senpai mentioned while eating that Satono Diamond's trainer… was 'also' hers once."
She put extra emphasis on the word "also."
Kitasan Black immediately noticed it, but she didn't understand why her senpai was stressing that point.
Vodka-senpai didn't keep her in suspense.
"You already know T.M. Opera O-senpai's record, right?
"Fourteen career victories, including seven G1 wins. She's one of the extremely rare 'Seven Crown' winners since the sparkling series began.
"But before her debut, she was actually a lot like you — nobody really believed in her."
Kitasan Black looked shocked.
"N-no way…? Even a senpai like T.M. Opera O went through something like that?"
At that point Daiwa Scarlet-senpai cut in:
"It's not that hard to imagine, Kita-chan.
"The same thing happened with Oguri Cap-senpai.
"My main trainer was once one of Oguri Cap-senpai's trainers. They knew each other from the local circuit.
"You already know how good my trainer is — he's considered one of the best active trainers right now.
"Yet even he didn't see Oguri Cap-senpai's talent at first. He never imagined she could win major Central stakes or G1 races, let alone so many of them.
"And even after he realized how incredible her talent was, he still chose to voluntarily end their contract and personally encouraged her to move to the Central — even though he knew staying with her would have brought him huge honors.
"So it's not hard to imagine talented horse girls who never get the chance to show what they can do. It's not rare at all. In fact, it's pretty common."
Kitasan Black had never heard any of this before, especially not the personal stories of her senpais. Hearing it all at once left her stunned and speechless.
"It's pretty much what Daiwa-senpai just said."
Vodka-senpai continued:
"After being rejected by so many trainers, T.M. Opera O-senpai refused to give up and kept looking for opportunities.
"That's when she met the one person who was willing to support her."
Kitasan Black stayed quiet for a moment.
"Was that… her trainer…?"
She didn't want to use words like "also" or "once."
To her, the relationship between a trainer and a horse girl should be like what she had with Yasui Makoto — trusting each other, working hard together, and staying together until the very end.
Sensing what she was thinking, Vodka-senpai didn't press the point.
"Yeah, that's right.
"But at the time she was still a student at the trainer academy, working as an assistant for a few newly qualified trainers.
"I don't know the exact details of what happened between her and T.M. Opera O-senpai — probably only the two of them do.
"Anyway, thanks to her efforts, one of her senior trainers agreed to give T.M. Opera O-senpai a chance.
"The rest you already know. T.M. Opera O-senpai went from a complete unknown to a world-famous horse girl, and the person who supported her later earned her own trainer license."
Hearing this, Kitasan Black thought for a moment, nodding half-understandingly before shaking her head.
"I think I get it, but…"
She hesitated.
"If she met a genius like T.M. Opera O-senpai before debut, that trainer must have learned a lot, right? She should be really outstanding now.
"So why would she get fired…"
She couldn't finish the sentence.
Because the three senpais in front of her all wore the exact same extremely strange expression at the same time.
She had seen that look before — it was the same face Yasui Makoto, Daiwa Scarlet-senpai, and Vodka-senpai had made at lunch on race day when she said something similar.
"Kita-chan, let me ask you something… or rather, take a guess."
Vodka-senpai took a deep breath and suddenly changed direction.
"After that trainer got her license, how many G1 victories do you think the horse girls she trained have won in all these years? Take a guess."
Although she knew nothing about these things, Kitasan Black could sense from her senpai's tone that the answer wasn't good.
She pressed her lips together, hesitated, then raised her hand.
"T.M. Opera O-senpai won seven G1s. Even if the horses she trained later weren't as strong, that trainer should have at least brought home five G1 wins, right?"
Vodka-senpai stared at her raised palm for a while, gave an awkward little smile, and shook her head.
"Wrong. Guess again."
"Not even five…?"
Kitasan Black froze.
"Then… four? No, three?"
She lowered two fingers one after another. When Vodka-senpai still shook her head, she was genuinely shocked.
"It can't be… only one? That would be too…"
She was about to say "too ridiculous" when her expression stiffened.
Because Vodka-senpai was still shaking her head.
"The correct answer is… zero G1 wins."
Once again, Kitasan Black fell silent.
She had never expected that answer, but she knew Vodka-senpai wouldn't lie to her.
Especially when Daiwa Scarlet-senpai and Ines Fujin-senpai both looked deeply moved and said nothing, clearly confirming it.
While shocked by the truth, she finally understood why that trainer had been fired by the Satono family.
Although they didn't talk about it much, from the little things the Satono sisters had said, she could tell the family placed extremely strict demands on them.
And coincidentally, just like that trainer's record over the years, the Satono family had been competing in the sparkling series for quite some time but still had zero G1 titles. The pressure on her friends must have been enormous.
That kind of pressure affected not only the horse girls but the trainers as well.
If you can't win, they'll just find someone else.
That was probably the Satono family's attitude toward trainers.
With the resources that family possessed, they could easily afford to do it.
But even without winning any races, that trainer had probably poured just as much effort into Satono Diamond as Yasui Makoto had into her.
Maybe some of those earlier victories had come from that hard work.
So Satono Diamond must have felt the same gratitude toward her trainer that Kitasan Black felt toward Yasui Makoto.
Now that her trainer had been fired after a single loss, that was probably why Satono Diamond was crying so hard…
T.M. Opera O-senpai, Satono Crown, and the others must have been trying to comfort her…
Thinking about all this, Kitasan Black unconsciously thought of Yasui Makoto and slowly began to understand something.
"…So Trainer…"
She looked in the direction of Yasui Makoto's rented apartment and murmured softly.
"He definitely knows about all this.
"When I asked him that day, he didn't tell me… probably because he didn't want to put any pressure on me or make me worry about him…"