King Halo wiped the dust from her cheeks with her sleeve. She could no longer remember the last time she had properly dressed up before going to the training grounds or the track.
The brutal daily training had long since made her stop caring about her appearance. By the end of each day, every last scrap of strength she had was squeezed dry and poured entirely into training.
Being allowed to go watch the race today already counted as a day off, and that at least gave the heart she had kept taut all this time a brief moment to loosen.
Her gaze stopped at the door before her. Warm light spilled out from inside. She knew her mother was in there.
She did not want to go in.
But she knew she could not avoid it.
She slowly opened the door. Before she had even finished changing her shoes, she heard Goodbye Halo's excited voice from inside.
"What, you found it? Send me the photo so I can take a look…"
Her mother sounded to be in a good mood, King Halo thought. Then she heard the irritated follow-up:
"No, not at all. It's completely different."
So her mood was not that good after all.
King Halo lowered her eyes and stepped into the living room. Her mother, who normally cared so much about how she presented herself, seemed to have let it slip today out of sheer frustration. Her hair had clearly been raked through with restless fingers. King Halo knew her mother had been searching for something lately. She did not know what it was, only that even a designer like Goodbye Halo seemed unable to faithfully reproduce whatever it was supposed to look like.
She waited quietly for her mother to finish discussing the details over the phone. Meanwhile, her thoughts had already drifted back to Nakayama Racecourse.
That Arima Kinen had truly set her blood boiling. She had wanted nothing more than to go out there and run it herself.
Still, since her trainer had said no, she would obey his arrangements.
Her eyes settled on her mother's face. For once, there was unmistakable fatigue in Goodbye Halo's expression, and that surprised her.
So even someone as brilliant and proud as Goodbye Halo could be truly tired.
Only after the call ended did Goodbye Halo finally turn her full attention to her daughter.
This was the first time she had seen King Halo since that meeting with Terumi Shinji.
The girl had grown thinner. That was the first thing she noticed.
Then she realized her daughter was a little more tanned as well.
The marks left by daily hardship were plainly visible on her body. A flash of heartache stirred in Goodbye Halo's eyes, but she concealed it well enough and stiffened her face.
"You…"
The rebuke that had almost left her lips stopped short.
King Halo had already lowered her head the instant her mother turned toward her, expecting criticism over how "un-first-class" she looked. The pain twisting in Goodbye Halo's chest came suddenly. Her daughter really had been drifting farther and farther away. A distance had grown between them. That realization brought a flicker of panic, yet pride kept her from softening.
The room froze into silence.
One of them stood with her head bowed.
The other kept looking her over, again and again, without knowing what to say.
In the end, the mother spoke first.
"How did watching the race feel today?"
This should have been King Halo's first Arima Kinen, the grand year-end stage she had finally been old enough and popular enough to stand on. But her trainer had rejected that idea without room for debate.
Her head snapped up. She looked at her mother in surprise. She had not expected Goodbye Halo to let her current, utterly "un-first-class" state slide so easily and simply change the subject.
After taking a breath, she answered softly,
"It moved me a lot."
"Moved you?"
This was perhaps the first time Goodbye Halo had ever listened to her daughter talk about how a race felt. It made her uncomfortable, and she looked away.
"Yeah. Offside Trap is really strong…"
King Halo hesitated, sneaking a glance at her mother's face before adding:
"I want to become that strong too."
"Strong?" Goodbye Halo let out a faint, amused scoff, as if she had heard something funny. Then she fell quiet, apparently thinking of something. "Perhaps. Her finishing burst is worth praising… for a Japanese horse girl."
As she said that, Goodbye Halo stood up. Her moving figure drew King Halo's eyes after her.
"Don't use her as your goal. You just haven't seen stronger horse girls yet."
King Halo did not argue. Given who her mother was, she naturally would have seen the top racers in the world. That meant that even someone as overwhelmingly powerful as Offside Trap—someone King Halo could barely imagine having any rivals—still had even more terrifying figures above her.
She pressed her lips together. The thought made the goal feel painfully distant.
Then her mother asked:
"What's your plan after this?"
"After this…"
King Halo suddenly realized what she meant.
New Year's Eve was almost here.
Up until now, she had always spent it with her mother. She had been about to answer as usual, but Terumi Shinji's face suddenly appeared in her mind.
The confidence on the man's face made her trust him more and more. During this past month of training, she had felt herself changing. It was not merely physical strength. Her inner self had been tempered too.
Goodbye Halo noticed her hesitation. For the first time, she truly realized that her daughter might really have grown up.
A girl who had always spent important days at home now wanted to go somewhere else.
Just like she once had.
Even the strictness of the trainers they had chosen was strangely alike.
Goodbye Halo did not force the matter.
The softness that passed through her mother's gaze went unnoticed by King Halo. She drew a deep breath, steeled herself, and looked straight at her mother. In her eyes, her mother's tall figure was gently holding the necklace at her chest.
That necklace had hung there for as long as King Halo could remember. She did not know what meaning it held, only that every time her mother touched it, a complicated look would appear on her face.
But that necklace always seemed to give Goodbye Halo strength. King Halo had seen it many times—whenever her mother gripped it tightly, she would fill with resolve again, as though fresh energy had been poured into her.
She shook her head, clearing the distraction, then said with careful but unwavering determination:
"I want to spend it with my trainer."
Goodbye Halo could not help thinking of the young man who had been so rude to her that day, and of the way he had walked away. He had looked straight through the pressure she tried to put on him. He was a man with very firm convictions. What Goodbye Halo had never told King Halo was that she had gone back and watched every race of every horse girl he had ever trained. He truly was extraordinarily talented.
Her mother's silence made King Halo assume she was refusing. So she hurriedly added:
"I want to keep learning from him. I feel like I can learn a lot just by staying at his side…"
That was the truth. She did not know how to explain it properly. Many things were like that—felt clearly, but could not be put neatly into words.
Goodbye Halo understood.
She stepped closer. King Halo sensed the movement and flinched slightly, but she still stubbornly lifted her head to meet her mother's eyes.
In her daughter's wavering gaze, Goodbye Halo suddenly froze for a moment.
Was she seeing someone else through her?
King Halo did not understand.
Goodbye Halo did not explain.
She simply walked past her.
"Could I even stop you?"
The voice from behind her was the first of its kind King Halo had ever heard from her mother. She turned sharply. The woman behind her stood straight, yet somehow looked as if her back had bent just a little.
King Halo did not answer.
She thought her mother probably could not stop her anymore.
Goodbye Halo seemed to know the answer in her daughter's heart already. She let out a quiet sigh. She had had this feeling from the moment King Halo had finally decided to become Terumi Shinji's trainee. And after meeting him face to face, that feeling had only grown much stronger.
He disliked the control she tried to exert over her daughter.
She knew he did not understand why.
But there was nothing she could do anymore.
"You really are alike…"
King Halo's eyes widened slightly. She had no idea what her mother meant.
"Both of you are so impossible for me to do anything about…"
There was helplessness in the half-turned face, and a trace of tenderness too. King Halo's eyes abruptly reddened.
That tiny bit of tenderness slipping out was the greatest comfort she had received for not being allowed to run in the Arima Kinen.
"Perhaps making you obediently listen to me was the one thing in this life I desperately wanted to do… and could never accomplish…"
A smile touched Goodbye Halo's lips. Perhaps it was self-mockery. Perhaps it held a little nostalgia. But it vanished quickly.
The woman was still the same woman—the unquestioned master of this house, carrying all her authority.
"Go to bed early. And… don't forget to clean yourself up and dress properly."
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
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 44
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