This meal lasted far longer than anyone had expected.
The mountain of carbs had nearly taken everybody out. By the time they left the cafeteria, every last one of them was stuffed solid.
"The moment I get home, I'm going to kill Gold Ship…" Nakayama Festa looked even worse than before. She had gone in expecting actual food, only to be hit with something like that. But since she had already taken it, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and force it all down.
A carb bomb she had only managed to swallow after adding two extra carrots for flavor.
"Ahem. In the future, we really need to limit Gold Ship's creative freedom… whew." Even Journey could not bear a blessing like that and said so outright. Out of the entire set, the ramen had been the only thing that came with seasoning built in.
They spent the afternoon wandering all over campus as a group. At one point they ran into the Mejiro group; Takamine had wanted to poach someone away, but Journey stepped in to protect her side. For the latter half of the day, Dyna and Zoff stayed toward the back, occasionally teasing Camellia.
"This family's actually pretty nice, huh? Except for that orange-haired gremlin! Dyna, how'd you even get to know them?" Zoff bit into a candied apple she had just bought, while handing the other one she was holding over to Camellia.
Dyna gave a helpless shrug. "It's because of Orfevre, really. My shop's in a shopping district owned by the Gold family. After that incident, they basically let me operate there freely. Anyway, even if they look scary, they're all really nice horse girls! Even Orfevre is!"
Dyna knew very well that while Orfevre was still a little unfriendly toward her because of certain things, at heart she was still a horse girl who liked children, with both innocence and kindness in her. In that respect she was no different from any ordinary horse girl. What Orfevre lacked was only the ability to express and control her emotions.
And those were things that could be changed later.
"What's so great about that orange-haired gremlin…? She's inferior to me in every way. Hmph." Zoff muttered under her breath. She kept feeling that Dyna was too much of a pushover, handing out good-person cards to everyone and never once putting her own feelings first.
"But is it really a good thing to ignore your own feelings just to accommodate somebody else? Dyna, you're always thinking about other people, aren't you? Then what about your own mood? Are you just going to ignore that completely?"
Zoff's sharp question instantly wiped the smile from Dyna's lips.
To be fair, Zoff was absolutely right. Dyna bit her lip and turned her face away, not wanting her to see the tangled expression there.
But Zoff simply cupped Dyna's somewhat gaunt face and turned it back by force, making her meet her eyes even as they walked.
"Look at you. You always instinctively try to avoid letting people see what's really inside you. If you keep trying to please everyone all the time, someday you're going to suppress yourself until you hit a breaking point. Sometimes, you need to be selfish!"
Then she let go. Her fingertips had gotten sticky from the candy and left some of that stickiness on Dyna's face, but Dyna could hardly care about that right now.
"I just… want to make friends…"
Dyna mumbled it, but when her eyes met the doubt in Zoff's gaze, she found herself being pushed step by step into a corner by a horse girl even younger than she was. She rubbed her face in a fluster, then continued, "Okay, maybe a little of it is that I'm scared that if I do something that makes my friends unhappy, they'll leave me…"
"You're such an idiot! Real friends don't get upset that easily!"
"Huh?"
The two of them had gradually gotten louder in French, enough to make the others ahead glance back. Beside them, Camellia's eyes were full of curiosity. She could not understand what Zoff and Dyna were saying, but a child's instincts told her they seemed to be arguing.
"Big Sister Dyna and Big Sister Zoff, don't fight…"
Camelia's tiny voice drifted into both their ears.
Zoff lightly rubbed one of her ears. "We're not fighting. Big Sis is just teaching your Big Sis Dyna some things. Otherwise one day, poof, you won't be able to see her anymore."
"I see… Then Big Sister Dyna definitely has to study what Big Sister Zoff is teaching her! Little Camellia wants to see Big Sister Dyna every day!"
Dyna could not help laughing, but faced with Camellia's seriousness, she responded just as seriously, pressing two fingers together and pointing them toward the sky.
"All right. I promise I'll study hard under Zoff."
"Hehe~"
Perhaps because she did not want to interrupt them, Camellia ran forward after getting Dyna's promise and threw herself into Orfevre's arms. Orfevre picked her up with one arm, glanced once at Zoff and Dyna, then looked away again.
Zoff spread her hands. "That's all I can say. Dyna, you need to understand that friendship is mutual effort. Not one person endlessly giving while the other endlessly takes. That kind of relationship isn't friendship! If there's ever something I do badly, or something that makes you uncomfortable, just say it!"
"I… um, Zoff, can you let me take some time to get used to this? I probably can't change it all at once, I…"
"You're doing it wrong. You should be firmer. 'Zoff, I need time to change.' Not this stammering mess!"
"I NEED TIME!!"
"Good! That's exactly the spirit!"
Zoff clapped happily, paying no mind at all to the looks from people around them. Changing Dyna would have to start little by little. Right now she was far too soft and squishy; it felt like any random horse girl could walk up and pinch her twice.
Zoff wanted to turn Dyna into a baguette that had gone cold.
Sharp enough to stab anyone.
Dyna's heart was pounding. With her nose stuffed, she could only open her mouth and breathe hard, but yelling that just now had really… felt amazing.
As she watched Zoff walking ahead of her, Dyna raised her fingers—still slightly sticky after rubbing her face—to her lips and gave them a small lick.
The hardened sugar was still sweet.
At least until it went bad, it would keep tasting sweet.
Dyna and Zoff went back to the shop after watching the New Year show together with Wada's group.
Naturally, the Aristocrat faction had no intention of stopping their apprentice from staying over at a good friend's house. The two of them took turns showering, and since Zoff had not brought a change of clothes with her, she had to borrow Dyna's for the time being.
The top hung loosely on her frame; if not for the transparent shoulder straps, half her pale shoulder would probably have been exposed.
Their late-night meal was a fragrant bowl of mixed fried rice. The two of them wolfed it down to fill their stomachs, then flopped back-to-back onto the reasonably large bed. After all, the bedroom upstairs was the only one the shop had.
"Dyna, you'll race in France again someday, right?"
Zoff lay on her side, one arm tucked beneath her head, and asked the question in the dim yellow light of the night lamp.
"Probably?"
Dyna answered in the same quiet voice.
"Zoff, let me tell you, my dream is actually—"
"Zzz…"
"Huh? You're asleep already… Looks like you really got tired out today."
"Oyasumi…"
Dyna closed her eyes too and almost instantly drifted off.
"My dream is actually to race you properly, head-on, on the track someday."
Right before her consciousness blurred completely and she sank into sleep, Dyna thought she heard those words.
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 115)
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 (Chapter116)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
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 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 111
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
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 95
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 89
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 61
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 65
Uma Musume: From Beginner 61
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 37
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