Pushing the front door open slowly, Saint King Halo was met at once by the eyes of one of the household maids.
The woman had been just about to head out, but the moment she saw how disheveled Saint King Halo looked, she froze in surprise and hurriedly stopped halfway through putting on her shoes.
It was rare to see the young lady return home in such a bedraggled state, so the maid immediately stepped forward to take her bag and help her out of her coat.
"Is Mother… home?" Saint King Halo asked.
The girl did not hand over her bag right away as she usually did. Instead, after an uncharacteristically long silence, she asked that one question.
The maid hesitated, then nodded. She remembered that Madam Halo had not been in a particularly good mood earlier. It was probably because of work. If she saw Saint King Halo in this state, she would almost certainly become even angrier.
Lowering her voice, the maid leaned in and quietly explained Madam Halo's current mood, then suggested that the young lady go around the back first, clean herself up, and only then meet her mother.
Saint King Halo remained silent.
Her mind was still full of the expression on Teruizumi Shinji's face when she left the training ground. That trainer who had already proven himself had looked at her no differently than the top Japanese trainers had before him, and the memory stabbed straight into her heart.
Was her talent truly that poor? Was her strength really so lacking that outstanding trainers could not even be bothered to look at her properly?
Ignoring the maid's advice, she walked stubbornly into the living room.
Goodbye Halo sat on the sofa, frowning as she thought over something. The moment she saw Saint King Halo returning from the academy this early, her brow furrowed even deeper.
"Why are you back so early today?" she asked.
Then her breathing grew heavier. She had already seen the dirt and grime all over Saint King Halo, and it ran completely counter to everything she normally drilled into her daughter.
"How many times have I told you not to come home looking like this? Even when you train, you're supposed to maintain the bearing of a first-rate horse girl!"
The words made Saint King Halo stiffen. She had been about to speak, but now she lowered her head instead.
Her mother's lectures should have been familiar by now.
But they no longer felt the same after she had seen that man dismiss her elegance as if it meant nothing.
"I…"
"What I? Just look at yourself. Is this any way for a first-rate horse girl to look?"
Goodbye Halo was genuinely furious. She had already been irritable because of a few minor problems at work, and now the sight of her rebellious daughter pushed her past the limit.
"How many times have I told you? If your training leaves you looking this miserable, that only proves the training itself is wrong. Do you know why you couldn't win a single G1 in your Classic year? Because your training had no efficiency. You're always saying you worked hard, always saying you were serious, but from where I'm standing, all I see is blind effort. Blind sincerity!"
Saint King Halo's eyes reddened slightly.
This—this was why she hated this house.
Every single time she wanted to express her own thoughts or ask for something, the woman before her would suppress her completely, never giving her a chance to speak, until she no longer had the desire to say anything at all. Only then would she ask what it was she had wanted in the first place.
"So? How did you end up like this?"
It seemed that getting some of her anger out had calmed Goodbye Halo a little. She closed her eyes, her face full of impatience. In her shop, she could still put on a smile for clients and horse girls alike. At home, she was always like this—sharp, forceful, and quick-tempered.
"I took part in a test run. It was a trial for evaluation."
"A test run? An evaluation trial?"
She could not understand why there would still be any such thing now, after the Kikuka Sho had already ended.
"Yes. I wanted to become Mr. Teruizumi Shinji's horse girl."
"Teruizumi Shinji…"
It took only a moment for the name to connect. The man who had once offered a few surprisingly decent suggestions about costume design had now apparently become a newly crowned Japan Cup-winning trainer.
Even in Goodbye Halo's eyes, the quality of that Japan Cup had been astonishing, and her tone softened accordingly.
"Well? How did it go?"
Her mother's shift in attitude did not escape Saint King Halo. It only confirmed for her how exceptional that trainer truly was.
"I failed."
"You failed?"
The anger that had just subsided flared up again. Goodbye Halo had assumed that if her daughter had come home looking this wretched, then at the very least she must have gotten some kind of result to justify it.
But if she had not even passed a simple test, then how dare she stand here in this filthy state?
Half laughing from sheer disbelief, Goodbye Halo shot to her feet, causing her daughter to instinctively step back.
"Why did you fail?"
Saint King Halo bit her lip. More than anything, she wanted to say, Because of the way you raised me. But the last shred of rationality still left in her kept her from saying it aloud.
So she slowly explained the reason.
As she spoke, the blazing anger in Goodbye Halo's eyes gradually cooled. She had seen too many trainers in her life not to understand that her daughter was telling the truth. By the time Saint King Halo finished, her mother had already calmed down.
That trainer's philosophy clearly differed from her own. One pursued results above all else; the other valued a more multifaceted standard. If she had to say it, Goodbye Halo still believed her own approach was more advanced, more in line with the mainstream view of the world.
And more fitting for Saint King Halo's status as well.
Horse girls were not defined by racing alone. Competition was not supposed to be the entirety of a horse girl's existence.
And for Saint King Halo, that was especially true.
Sitting back down on the sofa, the designer's impatience returned. One of the featured runway spots in an upcoming fashion show had just been abruptly moved from the finale to the middle, and she had no patience to spare for what she considered an unimportant issue.
"Then don't go after him. It's not as if there aren't other trainers."
"I wanted to ask you to help me find—"
The phone rang.
Goodbye Halo snatched it up at once, waving her hand sharply for Saint King Halo to leave.
For one brief, bitter moment, Saint King Halo honestly felt her mother simply found her presence irritating.
Swallowing the grievance in her throat, she turned and stomped upstairs, putting all her anger into the heavy thud of her footsteps.
But the great designer, now fully absorbed in the call, did not notice in the slightest.
At last, the tears Saint King Halo had been holding back spilled over.
Back in her room, she dropped into her chair and buried her face in her arms.
On the desk, angled slightly in front of her, stood a photograph taken when she graduated from the junior division.
Back then, Saint King Halo had been radiant and proud, hailed as the greatest genius of her generation. Wherever she went, she was surrounded by attention and praise.
It would be a lie to say she had not enjoyed those gazes.
But she had not truly liked that atmosphere, either.
She wanted to become a first-rate horse girl. She wanted to prove to her mother that she could do even better than she had, that she did not have to spend her life crushed beneath endless criticism and a shadow too vast to escape.
And yet, ever since that selection race, everything had started to go wrong.
El Condor Pasa, who took first, had already signed with Japan's number one trainer before Saint King Halo had even crossed the line. The second slot, which she had thought would fall into her hands, had been snatched away by some country girl she had never even heard of.
In the end, none of the first-rate trainers chose her.
Too proud to settle for some no-name trainer from the lower ranks, she stubbornly gambled everything on the later test races instead.
Then she lost to Grass Wonder. Just like with El, the same scene repeated itself—she could only watch as the other girl was taken by Tōjō Hana.
Then she lost to Seiun Sky as well. That girl had left with her hands behind her head, muttering that she could not be bothered with something so troublesome, and Saint King Halo still could not bring herself to sign with a trainer when even the winner had not done so.
Besides, a horse girl's career was not like a trainer's.
These were her most important years. If she chose recklessly and made the wrong call, the trainer might be able to waste time. She could not. To her, those lost years would be irreplaceable.
The image of the Japanese Derby resurfaced in her mind: she had lost control of her rhythm after trying to force the pace, and Special Week had gone on to claim the most important race of their year.
Under her trainer's guidance, Special Week had developed a much stronger ability to read races and control tempo. The targeted Derby preparation had shown clear results.
Saint King Halo knew that even if she had not lost her rhythm from trying to front-run, she still probably would not have beaten Special Week.
That was what a trainer meant.
That was a gap she could never bridge alone.
And it was only after feeling that difference with painful clarity that she had finally made up her mind to find a trainer.
But now that resolve had been dismissed like a joke.
She felt as though she had reached a crossroads between light and dark. She could expect no support from her family. She had no idea how to improve faster, or better.
She only knew one thing:
She did not want to lose anymore.
Not to those rivals she still had to greet politely. Not while swallowing down all her resentment because even that much was not allowed.
Layer upon layer of shackles bound her in place, and the very people who had fastened them watched her coldly from afar.
If she wanted saving, she would have to save herself.
She looked at the tear stains soaking into her sleeve. Then, as if reaching some final decision, she shot to her feet.
The full-length mirror reflected her current state back at her: dirty, disheveled, miserable.
But Saint King Halo understood something now.
Even if she kept herself polished and beautiful on the outside, as long as she could never win a G1, as long as she could never become truly first-rate, she would never be free of the ugliness within—or the pride so deeply carved into her bones that even recognizing it was not enough to escape it.
She drew in a deep breath.
In her mind rose the image of Offside Trap's final burst in the Japan Cup—that incomparable speed, far beyond anything any of the friends she had grown up with could match.
She could not wait any longer.
She had to do something.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 132)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 26
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 36
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