Dyna shook her head, forcibly throwing that voice out of her mind for the moment, and hurried to explain.
"It's not that kind of maid, really. A more accurate way to put it would be... logistics staff who mainly handles food."
"I get it~" Zhuofu nodded, then held out her hand. "Zhuofu, that's my name. I'm guessing you're staying at Tracen too?"
Dyna had only just started to reach out when the overly enthusiastic Zhuofu grabbed her hand with both of hers and shook it up and down so hard Dyna felt like her brain was getting stirred smooth.
"That's right... My name's Shining Dyna. At the moment, I guess I count as... a wild Uma Musume?"
"A wild Uma Musume."
The phrase was delightfully fresh to Zhuofu's ears. But then, remembering how Dyna had been trying to buy bread just now, she smoothly changed the subject.
"But first, let me help you pick out some bread. I'm an old customer here, so if you ask me, you can't go wrong!"
Watching Zhuofu act like this, the owner just shook his head. Whenever she got going, she usually ended up recommending the full grand slam to people.
And sure enough, after hearing Zhuofu's suggestions, Dyna ordered a small portion of everything. By now, the owner was used to it.
"Sorry to make you work overtime again, boss Heehee"
Zhuofu waved at the owner as he headed into the back. But when she turned around, she caught a glimpse of a vivid streak of red showing through Dyna's chestnut hair.
It vanished in the blink of an eye.
Dyna had been absentmindedly rubbing the Triumphal Ballet card in her pocket with her fingers. By the time she noticed Zhuofu stepping right up in front of her, it was already too late. The faint scent of lavender on Zhuofu made Dyna's brain stall for a second.
"That's weird. I could've sworn I saw you turn red-haired just now... Was I imagining it? Or do you secretly have red dye underneath?"
"N-no way! You must've seen it wrong. Or maybe the neon lights reflected funny or something?"
The closeness made Dyna intensely uncomfortable. Fortunately, Zhuofu only gave her a quick once-over before stepping back again, and Dyna finally let out a quiet breath of relief.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Every shop around here's lit up with neon these days. All those colors really do mess with your eyes."
She had managed to bluff her way through.
After feeling things out over this period of time, Dyna had managed to confirm one thing.
The special ability she possessed as a "Uma Musume," this so-called Wish Condensation, was not the same thing as the stat-allocation system.
Allocating points strengthened her own attributes.
But Condensation was capable of producing actual perceptual distortions.
If Orfevre insisting that Dyna had red hair could still be explained by the card's source having some old grudge or connection to her rival, that was one thing. But now even Zhuofu, who had absolutely nothing to do with any of that, had seen it too.
That meant the "card" could create a flawlessly convincing false perception.
In other words, Dyna could theoretically use the card to pull off perfect cosplay—to act under the identity of that horse girl and do whatever she wanted, without anyone realizing it was her true self behind it...
"Still, I think you'd look really pretty with red hair."
Zhuofu's comment made Dyna choke internally. In the end, she said nothing.
After all, Zhuofu still had no idea what kind of awful Gold-family horse girl was going to descend on France next year. Red hair was practically the one hair color Orfevre found the most intolerably eye-catching.
Just as Dyna was about to sink into awkward silence from having nothing to say, the baker finally returned with the bread she had ordered, already baked and neatly packaged on the counter.
Dyna silently thanked the man from the bottom of her heart. Her whole soul had already been lured over by the smell as she hurried to the counter.
"It smells amazing... And it's pure wheat aroma!"
Since she had already paid, Dyna immediately picked up a loaf and bit into it on the spot, not caring how hot it still was. It did burn her mouth a little, but the texture and flavor were absolutely flawless.
Was this the aesthetic of French bread?!
Watching Dyna's eyes grow even brighter, Zhuofu planted one hand on her hip and shot the owner a smug grin.
"See, boss? This horse girl knows what she's talking about too, right?"
"Heh, yes, she does." The owner sighed with a smile and shook his head. "It's been a long time since I've seen that kind of expression."
Most customers offered only a simple It's delicious as their honest evaluation. But for someone in the food business, that was already enough.
Even though Dyna found herself wanting to ask the man to take her on as an apprentice, she kept it to herself. There was no way he would casually hand over the craft he lived by to some stranger he had only just met once.
So she waited until Zhuofu got her own bread, and the two of them left the shop together.
The road outside was brightly lit. Under the plain, steady light, Zhuofu was finally able to get a proper look at Dyna's face.
Her cheeks still held a trace of youthfulness, much like Zhuofu's own, but behind those red-framed glasses there was always a hint of wariness. Most striking of all was that head of chestnut hair, which almost seemed to glow under the lights.
Zhuofu hugged a paper bag half her own height to her chest, but kept turning her head to look at Dyna, blue eyes tinged with quiet puzzlement.
That kind of melancholy—she had only ever seen it in her master's eyes before.
Now there was Dyna too.
Looks like there were some things she was going to have to ask her master about in the morning. After all, her master was the person in charge of foreign horse girls coming to run in the Arc and the related prep races. Getting hold of certain files would be easy.
The two walked in silence until they reached the gates of Tracen.
The old gatekeeper saw that it was Zhuofu bringing back a horse girl whose name he didn't know and didn't bother asking questions. She was the disciple of a distinguished house, after all. If she was bringing someone in, that was good enough for him.
"Want me to walk you back to your dorm?"
Zhuofu glanced down at her watch. At this hour, even the campus lights would be going out soon. She was a little worried that Dyna, unfamiliar with the place, might get hopelessly lost in the academy all night, so she asked.
Of course, the question was really just a formality.
Whether Dyna agreed or not, Zhuofu escorted her all the way to the bottom of her dorm building anyway.
"Then I'm heading back~ See you tomorrow?"
"Mm... huh? Tomorrow?"
By the time Dyna came back to herself, Zhuofu's figure had already melted into the darkness. She had no choice but to swallow the words still sitting in her chest and climb the stairs step by step. The motion-sensor lights flicked on one by one, then dimmed again as she passed. Once she closed the dorm room door behind her, the hallway sank back into darkness.
Down below, around the corner, once she heard the sound of the door shutting, Zhuofu finally took out her phone. The brightness of the screen almost stabbed her eyes.
"I thought you'd secretly booked yourself a ticket back home and run off. Turns out you were sneaking out on a date with some foreign filly instead."
Shaking her head, she stuffed both hands into her pockets and went upstairs to her own room.
The next morning, Dyna woke up before her alarm as usual. Before even putting on her glasses, she grabbed her phone and held it up in front of her face, only to remember that she had forgotten to get Zhuofu's contact information yesterday.
"Well, if she's in this academy, then I'm bound to run into her again... Time to make breakfast."
Only after rubbing her face did she put on her glasses. As usual, she slipped the card on the table into the pocket of her pajamas—
And then froze when she looked in the mirror.
The horse girl reflected there had vivid red hair.
In her blue-green eyes was a look of blank confusion.
And the swan-feather ornament on her ear looked painfully familiar...
"Eek?! Why did I turn into Triumphal Ballet?!"
Her shriek was completely smothered by the excellent soundproofing of the walls. By the time Dyna slapped her cheeks a few times and forced herself awake, the mirror once again showed the same familiar self she knew.
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 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 126)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter134)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 87
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 79
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 73
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 49
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 45
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 45
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 31
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 27
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 26
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