Symboli Rudolf's gaze was heavy, but she said nothing.
Sirius Symboli, standing beside her, had been about to say something to liven the mood, but when she looked at that petite figure at the very front, the words she had meant to speak died in her throat.
Mr. C.B. stood off to one side with her arms folded, looking as if she had no interest in this Arima Kinen at all. But from the way her eyes kept drifting toward Symboli Rudolf, it was obvious that she was very interested in the outcome.
Once, she herself had abandoned the running style she was best at in order to defeat Rudolf in this very race.
And now, there was another horse girl standing against Rudolf—one who might actually win.
Mr. C.B. found that fascinating.
"Rudolf, this should be our first Autumn Triple Crown, right? If Offside Trap wins the Arima Kinen, I mean?"
The small figure standing at the very front was none other than Akikawa Yayoi. The chairman of Central Tracen Academy had been unable to make it in time to watch the Japan Cup in person, but now she had finally managed to free up her schedule. Sitting in her specially made chair, she watched the girls below as they loaded into the gates.
"Yes."
Rudolf's tone was poor, but Akikawa Yayoi did not mind. She had already heard from Hayakawa Tazuna about the conflict between Rudolf and that trainer. In her view, though, matters like this would eventually settle themselves.
Just as they basically had after the Japan Cup.
If Offside Trap won the Arima Kinen too, then everyone would naturally know where to place their judgment.
"I heard Brian left the student council. What happens next? Is Air Groove taking over?"
She brought up succession bluntly, and Rudolf lowered her eyes halfway, understanding that this was Akikawa Yayoi's veiled way of expressing dissatisfaction with the student council's recent performance. Rudolf's posture did not change, but Sirius Symboli noticed the faint trembling in her arm.
"Brian will come back. I believe in her."
"Do you believe in her? Or do you believe in that trainer?"
"...I can believe in both."
Akikawa Yayoi nodded approvingly. In her impression, Symboli Rudolf had always been a horse girl of great breadth and character. She should never have done those baffling things over the past while. Or perhaps it was simply that she had sat in that position for too long, and had gradually lost the sensitivity and caution she once had.
Her gaze returned to the field below.
The horses had nearly all finished loading.
Skipping over several popular runners on the outside, Akikawa Yayoi looked straight toward stall number one.
That was where Offside Trap would break from, carrying a support rate of 1.4 and heading for the finish line.
What an absurd level of support.
Who could have imagined that just two months ago, this had been a girl who could not even win cheers after taking her first G1?
The sharp whistle of the starter cut through the air. The staff members scattered away from both sides of the gate vehicle, leaving the front of it instantly clear.
Then—
Bang!
The gates flew open, and fifteen horse girls burst out.
"Clean break—there it is, the race has begun! And just as expected of these fifteen runners, there's no slow starter at all. Just like the pre-race forecast, Seiun Sky is already charging forward to seize the lead!"
[Territorial Lord Bond activated: All stat-boosting effects gain an additional 5% effectiveness]
[Earthwarden Bond activated: Power +30, Stamina +30, Guts +30, track aptitude correction +30%]
[Dimensional Shadowflow: On good going, all stats +1 for every 100 points in any stat]
[Variable Supercar: During the race, 0–800m Power +5%; 800–1400m Wisdom +5%; 1400–2000m Speed +5%; 2000–2500m Stamina +5%]
[Mockery of Preservation: All rival stats lower than the horse girl's corresponding stats are reduced by 50]
[Deep-Sea Rhapsody: Wisdom +200]
[Counterclockwise Lv. 1 (Green)]
[Single-Minded Focus (Gold)]
The system notifications rang through her mind one after another. Golden light flared from Single-Minded Focus, and from the stands Shinji clearly saw Offside Trap shoot up into the front group. Satisfied, he nodded.
Now that she possessed increasingly higher overall stats, if she simply handled the first phase cleanly after the break, a horse girl suited to leading could take control of the race rhythm and shape her winning chance.
"Seiun Sky in stall two is now fighting for the lead! On the inside is Offside Trap—Offside Trap's break was lightning quick, forcing Seiun Sky to accelerate even harder! The two runners in front everyone's watching, while behind them is Big Sunday, with Osumi Kyoshi a little farther outside. The pack behind hasn't spread out much yet—they're still pressing forward. Is this going to be a fast-paced race? Up front, Seiun Sky is still accelerating!"
[Crowd Idol (Gold)]
Another burst of golden light rose.
Offside Trap's eyes flicked slightly outward. Seiun Sky was absolutely determined to take the lead, and Offside Trap had no intention of wasting herself in a meaningless fight with her for it. Planning her path in advance was the better choice.
Her gaze shifted to mid-pack.
Her body followed it at once.
If she stayed glued to the rail, she worried that when they entered the third and fourth turns, Seiun Sky's line adjustment up front might affect her run.
"Big Sunday on the inside has just gone past Offside Trap and is still accelerating! Seiun Sky up front is beginning to drift toward the middle of the course rather than taking the shortest path—she's choosing the more comfortable patch of turf! On the outside are Stay Gold and Osumi Kyoshi. Mid-pack now: Air Groove, and on her inside Mejiro Dober. On the outside, Grass Wonder and Mejiro Bright are already threading through the gap in the middle of the field—they've now gone past Air Groove and are right behind Offside Trap!"
Shinji lowered his binoculars slowly.
Something was wrong.
The runners behind were all far too agitated today. Many of the girls who should normally have been sitting farther back were still increasing their speed here, clearly trying to secure even more forward positions.
Were they doing it because of the pressure Offside Trap brought, because they did not want too much distance opening between themselves and her?
Shinji did not think so.
That kind of move cost energy for those closer-type runners too. Even if they stayed nearer to Offside Trap, without enough stamina left for a decisive burst at the end, they still would not catch her. It would achieve nothing.
His brow furrowed.
And meanwhile, the situation on the track continued to evolve.
"The runners are now entering the home-side straight. Seiun Sky still leads, followed by Big Sunday and Rising Banner. Right behind them—Offside Trap, with Stay Gold half a length farther out. Then Osumi Kyoshi and Mejiro Dober even wider. Air Groove and Grass Wonder are behind Offside Trap now, while Matikanefukukitaru has advanced into the middle group!"
"Air Shakur is out in the fourth and fifth lanes as well! They're about to enter the final straight—Nakayama's stretch is short, Nakayama's stretch is short! They're trying to lock Offside Trap inside!"
Akasa Mito's voice rang through all of Nakayama Racecourse.
Inside that tightening enclosure, the young girl's face turned grim.
Offside Trap had never been a ruthless sort of horse girl. But from the moment she decided she would keep winning, she had already ceased to be the person she once was.
During those endless dark nights, she had long since changed.
The countless unlit tracks she had traveled, the scattered streetlamps she had passed beneath—none of them had ever been enough to illuminate her heart.
She would become her own sun.
[Wings of Defiance That Long for the Deep Sky (Unique) Lv. 4]
[Fully Fueled (Gold)]
Her breathing suddenly sharpened.
The pressure on Seiun Sky and Stay Gold, who had been sharing the burden of containing her, surged all at once. The two horse girls' expressions changed drastically. Big Sunday and Rising Banner on the inside had not yet fully grasped what was happening, but they could already feel that the two girls outside seemed to have encountered some overwhelming pressure. Their formation was on the verge of being torn apart.
A sudden inward squeeze—
Mejiro Dober and Osumi Kyoshi had already pressed onto Stay Gold from the outside. Behind them, Air Groove and Grass Wonder moved too.
Grass Wonder's eyes flashed blue.
The teammates around her were shifting outward now, and Grass Wonder glanced at Offside Trap, who was still trying to break through from the middle. In her mind surfaced all the instructions Tōjō Hana had given her.
Her trainer had so clearly believed that she could not beat Offside Trap directly that she had only arranged for her to help box her in through coordinated movement from the others.
Even though she had only recently returned from injury.
Even though she had been only one step behind Offside Trap.
The pale blue light surrounding her body thickened.
Air Groove, beside her, seemed to sense something and turned sharply toward her junior from the same team. A faint sky-blue mantle seemed to settle across the girl's body—the kind of burgeoning energy only fellow horse girls could see.
Air Groove had seen it before.
On the two student council members who stood beside her.
The situation on the track descended into chaos.
The front runners, still side by side, seemed to be blocking the shockwave crashing up from behind. And then Grass Wonder, already angled to the outside, exploded forward in an instant.
That was the crystallization of all the regret and resentment born from her year lost to injury. She too had the will and the courage to unleash everything—and from that came the embryonic form of her domain.
"The field is entering the final straight! Nakayama's short stretch—and Grass Wonder on the outside! It's Grass Wonder! Grass Wonder—the horse girl who stood at the summit in her debut year, still as terrifying as ever after the frustrations of her classic season! Air Groove behind her—Air Groove can't stay with Grass Wonder's stride! On the inside, the runners on the inside—"
Seiun Sky and Stay Gold had noticed Grass Wonder's sudden explosion, but the crushing pressure from behind had already wrung them dry. The stamina that had once swelled inside them had, in barely more than two hundred meters, been completely drained.
What was charging from behind them was not a horse girl.
It was a beast.
At last Seiun Sky's steps faltered. In that brief stumble, the sharp gaze behind her caught the opening, and a figure shot through.
Thud!
It felt like slamming into a wall.
Big Sunday, on Seiun Sky's inside, was shoved even further inward. Rising Banner was dragged with her and nearly lost her footing as well.
Stay Gold's eyes flew wide. She had never imagined that such a seemingly delicate girl could unleash such overwhelming force.
The breach was torn open.
The perfectly arranged blockade collapsed in an instant.
And all this happened just beyond the two-hundred-meter marker.
"Grass Wonder has reached the lead! Grass Wonder is blasting forward powerfully on the outside—the last two hundred meters! But on the inside! On the inside—Offside Trap! Offside Trap has finally come through! Offside Trap has finally come through!"
The wings that had been bound down at last unfurled.
The rush of wind sent Stay Gold's hair flying in wild disarray. Her vision blurred.
That fierce wind.
Grass Wonder, who had been blazing just ahead, suddenly felt the energy surging through her reverse. The pale blue light around her domain seemed to sense a pair of eyes upon it—
Eyes sharp as a hawk's.
Eyes bearing the majesty of a lord.
Grass Wonder's stride faltered.
And then she saw that sweep of chestnut hair.
Offside Trap had already flashed past her.
She had never experienced anything like it before.
In less than a second, the girl had gone from behind her to directly in front of her.
It was a plunge from heaven to hell so swift that even time itself felt too coarse a unit to measure it.
"Offside Trap! Offside Trap has broken through—this wall of horse girls couldn't stop her at all! Final hundred meters, final hundred meters! Offside Trap—Offside Trap is about to claim the Autumn Triple Crown!"
"She was once a wandering drifter, a struggler covered in wounds. Injury crushed her again and again, and she spent years trapped at the graded-race level—she went from not being able to win even a single graded race, to standing on the brink of the Autumn Triple Crown! Only she herself knows the bitterness of that path! And now, Offside Trap lifts her head high—the horses behind her can't catch her anymore! Offside Trap is running away with it!"
"The final fifty meters! Two lengths, three lengths in front! The battle for second is fierce, but Offside Trap—Japan's number one—needed only three races!"
"From an anonymous nobody buried beneath a dynasty's shadow, to the queen of Japan herself—what kind of ending could possibly be worthy of such a road of hardship and wandering? This autumn fairy tale, at last, has you as its heroine—Offside Trap, first across the line!"
The grandstands exploded.
Akikawa Yayoi leapt from her chair on the viewing platform and applauded with all her strength for the girl who had crossed the line.
This was a moment bound for the history books.
The first-ever Autumn Triple Crown now shone upon this course.
As Offside Trap gradually came down from her run, she lifted her head.
Akasa Mito could not make out the expression on her face, but in that fleeting haze, it seemed as if the girl standing there now overlapped with the girl from after the Autumn Tenno Sho.
All the way here, even after victory, the road had never once become smooth.
What kind of fierce conviction had she carried inside her, to finally walk this far?
The woman's eyes filled with tears. Bracing herself against the desk with trembling arms, she was overcome with reverence for that will.
It was as if she could see, in her mind, the figure on the training track who never once stopped—
sunrise to sunset, day after day.
And so, with a raw, hoarse voice, she cried out her final line.
"Offside Trap! She debuted successfully at Nakayama, three times in all—and on her third time here, she has reached the summit! In the pantheon, there was never any god to answer her prayers—only the self that, for five long years, longed to escape the struggle!"
She paused.
Then the words erupted from her again.
"When the bitterness is finally over and sweetness comes, then tell the story of the road that brought you here! Offside Trap—Autumn Triple Crown achieved!"
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 138)
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 (Chapter160)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter98)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter175)
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 163
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 150
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 100
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 170
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 145
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 125
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 69
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 90
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 100
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 70
Uma Musume: I Want All 90
I Can Copy Unique Skills 65
Summoning an Evil God, but the 52
Supernatural Multiverse 65
My Harem Is Indescribable 55
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 55
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 66
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 55
Still playing traditional Honk 35
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 35
What Should I Do After Switchi 24
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 35
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 27
Transmigrated as Sukuna 27
Checking In in Demon Slayer 32
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin