The morning sun streamed through the bakery's glass windows, spilling across the spotless front counter, which was polished every single day. Dyna stood there organizing the last of the things she needed, then slipped her special card case into the inner pocket of her clothes and pressed it flat with her hand.
Inside were not only the cards of the Sea the Stars mother-daughter pair, but also Cody's Wish, Sea the Stars, and Nakayama Festa. All of them were horse girls whose fates had become deeply entangled with hers.
The Satsuki Sho was enormously important to Dyna, but it meant just as much to her nominal training team and to her trainer, Ryuuji Wada. In every meaningful sense, Dyna was one of Wada's horses, and just as much a horse girl Opera O had practically taught by hand.
And for Wada's team, it had already been many years since they last conquered a G1.
Dyna shook her head and threw those distracting thoughts out of it. Her late-night call with Trof was still fresh in her mind. Smiling lightly, she took out her phone, found Noble Family's contact from France on Twitter, and typed out a few lines in French, reminding her to check Trof's room.
After all, Dyna always did what she said she would do. If not for the pressure of the Satsuki Sho, she might already have flown back to France herself.
Once Nakayama Festa had shown her how to do it the first time, repeating it a second and third time was hardly difficult.
"Boss~ all packed up?" Nagasakura came over with a hot cup of milk in hand, her eyes full of anticipation. She knew Dyna would be away for a few days, so she had deliberately come in early to help. "Curren Chan said she'll be livestreaming the Satsuki Sho from start to finish tomorrow. So with a super-popular influencer like her doing coverage on top of JRA, it'll be way easier for overseas fans to watch too, right?"
"Really? Curren Chan's coming too? I'm so grateful. Once the Satsuki Sho is over, I'm definitely going to thank her in person! And I'll have to trouble you and Oguri to keep the shop running these next few days." Dyna truly appreciated everything Nagasakura had done since she started working here. In the future, Dyna intended to rely on her even more—but she absolutely would not leave her stuck in the kitchen forever.
"Once the Satsuki Sho is over, I'm going to start thinking about hiring more people and expanding with chain stores!"
Nagasakura smiled faintly and set the warm milk on the table. "Big things first. Worry about that after. I'll get back to work. Good luck tomorrow, Boss. I'll be watching the livestream here with the customers."
The milk was pleasantly warm and faintly sweet; Nagasakura had probably added some sugar for her. Dyna drained it in one go and set the empty cup aside.
"Yeah. I'm absolutely not going to let down anyone's expectations. And Orfevre's definitely going under my feet again!"
If she could beat her once, she could beat her a second time, and a third, and keep doing it until she herself left the stage of the Twinkle Series.
That was the new truth Dyna had come to understand. When facing an enemy, hesitation and kindness were useless. All they would do was corner you and drag you into the abyss.
Before leaving the bakery, Cody tilted his head at Nagasakura, and Nagasakura waved back to him in farewell.
"Bye-bye, Cody too~ Dyna's in your care while she's away from home, okay?"
"Chirp chirp."
For once, Cody actually answered. Probably.
Then the wooden door of the bakery closed, cutting off their line of sight. Cody shuffled along Dyna's shoulder until he settled against her neck.
At this point, it was best to sleep. What did human or horse-girl affairs have to do with a tiny little bird like him?
By the time they walked from the shop to the gates of Tracen Academy, Opera O was already there, wearing long sleeves and trousers. She lowered her sunglasses and arched a brow.
"You really do look like you're heading out on a picnic. Is that little blue bird going with you to Tokyo Racecourse too?"
"Of course Cody's my good friend. He brings good luck. As for the picnic... I think winning the Satsuki Sho will be just as easy as going on one?"
For once, Dyna relaxed enough to tease in front of Opera O, and the older horse girl burst out laughing.
Still, to Opera O, that was a good sign. The more relaxed a horse girl felt before a race, the more likely it was to help her.
"Good! That's the spirit of a true霸王! If you inherit that title one day, I can rest easy! Hahaha! Come on, let's go. Today's trip to Tokyo Racecourse is just for taking it easy. I've already told you enough about the course itself, so there's nothing left to stress over, right?"
Opera O was the type whose confidence only grew the more faith everyone placed in her. Both Wada and she had pinned enormous hopes on Dyna, so there was no point in worrying now.
The one they were really worried about in the team at the moment was Kiryuuin. She desperately needed a graded-race win to prove herself on the central dirt circuit. If she lost again, she would probably wind up right back in the loop of grinding allowance races.
They climbed into the car. Opera O took the front passenger seat and waved for the driver to get moving, then glanced back at Dyna.
"I've seen some of the overseas press too. France has quite the high opinion of you, huh?"
"Yeah. They say I'm the most dazzling horse girl to come out of the Marcel Boussac in recent years, and they hope I can keep that brilliance up until my next French G1... but I'm pretty doubtful about all that myself."
Dyna answered softly, then laughed a little despite herself.
"Well, the media says whatever it wants. Back when I was on that five-race losing streak, Japanese reporters were calling me precocious and already fading. And then what happened? I smashed them so hard over my undefeated old-horse year that they didn't even have room to complain. Just let your results speak."
Opera O had endured plenty of nonsense during her own racing career. Compared to that, Dyna's troubles were merely leftovers from the feast.
The car sped down the highway toward Tokyo Racecourse. Scenery streamed by beyond the glass. Leaning against the window, Dyna found her thoughts drifting again to the arguments she had seen online.
Some people were hoping she would break the curse of the outside draw the way Tokai Teio had. Others doubted she could overcome Orfevre's Gate 12. Some were even bringing up her debut race again, guessing Orfevre might pull another dirty move.
"Hm? What's on your mind? You're spacing out."
Opera O had spotted the absent look on Dyna's face through the rearview mirror. It did not look like sleepiness.
Dyna shook her head. "I was thinking about Orfevre. I spent almost all of last night scrolling through forums. People had every kind of opinion about her."
Opera O folded her arms. "You're worried she'll do what she did in your debut again?"
"A little. I've always hoped she'd reform. But once bitten, twice shy. I still can't help worrying."
"Relax. The stewards at a G1 are even stricter than in the Twinkle Series. If anyone so much as looks like they're about to commit a foul, they'll be hauled into the inquiry room. If she did what she did in your debut again, Orfevre would be packing her bags and leaving Central Tracen Academy."
Opera O was not exaggerating. In a case like that, expulsion would be the lightest punishment she could hope for.
Dyna nodded, and the unease in her chest eased a little. Thinking back to Orfevre's awkward tone after the Spring Stakes, Dyna suddenly felt that perhaps the orange-haired girl who used to rely on brute force and dirty tricks really had been growing little by little.
When they arrived at Tokyo Racecourse, it was already noon. The sun of late April beat down on the earth with a hint of summer heat, and the racecourse's iconic logo shone brilliantly under the light.
As Dyna followed Opera O into the racecourse to complete the registration formalities, they unexpectedly ran into Orfevre, Trainer Ikezoe, and two other girls from the same team—Whale Voyage and Curren Chan.
"Ah Dyna-chan what a coincidence."
Curren Chan waved as she came over, casually lifting her camera. "Want a photo together?"
Ever since their business collaboration began, Dyna and Curren Chan had kept in close contact, and over time they had genuinely become good friends. Naturally, Dyna did not refuse.
"Of course, Karen-chan."
The two of them leaned together in front of the very expensive camera lens, flashed peace signs, and only separated after the shutter clicked.
Everyone else there looked a little stunned.
Orfevre most of all. The look she gave Curren Chan held something... difficult to describe.
"Hehe Good luck in the Satsuki Sho Karen-chan will be watching you from up in the stands the whole time."
Curren Chan said it like that, and not once did she so much as mention Orfevre.
Ikezoe's group had already finished registering, so the encounter did not develop into much more than that. Once all four of them were well out of sight, Opera O finally spoke up.
"So you and Curren Chan are already that close?"
"It sort of developed naturally out of our business partnership. But yeah, we really do get along well."
"Didn't expect that. I thought everyone on Orfevre's team had a bad attitude toward you."
"No way. Don't assume the worst about people, Opera O."
At that moment, the horse girl at the registration desk timidly interjected.
"Um... excuse me, could the two of you please come over here to complete your registration and collect your racecourse passes?"
A Century-End霸王 on one side, and on the other what might become the next earth-shaking horse-shaking horse girl of a new era—this young horse girl, only a few days into her job, hardly dared breathe too loudly.
"Ah? Oh, right! Sorry, we got carried away."
Opera O led Dyna over, submitted the materials, and waited while the passes were processed.
"Mm... Satsuki Sho entrant Light Dyna, accompanying personnel T.M. Opera O, correct?"
She looked at the information displayed on the screen and asked softly.
Once the two of them confirmed it, she continued, "Please place your fingers here to record your fingerprints."
When all the procedures were finished, Dyna received her entrant pass, while Opera O got her accompanying personnel pass.
"These passes will remain valid for two days and will automatically expire afterward. You're welcome to keep them as souvenirs. Of course, if you don't want them, you can return them to staff for recycling."
Only after reciting the official script did the young girl finally seem to relax. Now that the work side of things was done, she could give in to her fangirl feelings at last.
After the two of them left, she immediately pulled out her phone, started slacking off, and excitedly posted in her LINE circle about having just met Opera O and Light Dyna.
"Our rooms are right next to each other. Nice. Let's eat at the racecourse cafeteria. We've been busy all morning and haven't even had water."
Opera O glanced at the information printed on their passes and sounded pleased that their rooms were adjoining. That meant they would not have to worry about getting separated.
They could eat lunch first, then head back for a nap. Later that night, the racecourse would also be doing final checks on all the horse girls entered for tomorrow's races, making sure no one had failed to report in. That way, the procedure for getting into the course and then into the pre-race preparation area tomorrow morning would be much simpler.
For lunch, Opera O chose pork cutlet.
Dyna chose pork cutlet, rice bowl, and several desserts on top of that.
Stacked together on her tray, it looked rather spectacular.
"It takes this much for me to get full now..." Dyna explained as she sat opposite Opera O, then put her palms together and dug in.
"If I don't, the extra energy just turns into fat that gets in the way when I move."
Opera O found herself oddly gratified. It seemed Dyna really had listened to her advice. At a glance, her body no longer looked quite so thin and delicate as before.
During this recent weight-gain phase, her unique horse-girl constitution had turned most of the excess energy into muscle instead of fat, even without formal strength training.
Still, once the Satsuki Sho was over, it would be time to resume proper conditioning.
Dyna tore through the meal like a storm. By the time she finished, Opera O had only eaten about three-quarters of hers, and Dyna had already moved on to dessert.
There were reporters in the racecourse too. Even though there were no major races today, maiden classics and Class races still provided plenty of useful stories to write.
One scruffy middle-aged reporter had noticed Dyna the moment lunch began.
More specifically—her appetite.
"Ho ho. Last time I saw a horse girl eat like that right before a race, it was Special Week."
He poked at his rice with a spoon, but his gaze never left Dyna's table.
Professional instinct told him that Light Dyna's achievements would, at the very least, be on the level of Oguri Cap's. The current buzz around her had already reached an unprecedented pitch. If she managed what Oguri Cap never did and actually took the Triple Crown, the frenzy would only continue to snowball.
"And with her and Orfevre, the pair of them are practically born to make headlines. Luck's really on my side."
He chuckled to himself, though he did not actually approach them. He knew enough to understand that what a horse girl needed most before a race was focus.
Once the Satsuki Sho was over, he would have all the time in the world to interview the winner.
And the winner, in his eyes, would come down to only two possibilities:
Light Dyna
or
Orfevre
"Since lunch is over, let's go rest. We'll meet here again tomorrow morning."
Opera O tapped the location of the rest area printed on the pass.
Dyna nodded. "Okay. Got it."
A Satsuki Sho at Tokyo Racecourse—something unprecedented in history.
And the people watching it would not be limited to Japan. France was watching too.
Because the stronger Dyna looked, the more prestigious the Marcel Boussac would appear in turn.
The value Dyna herself was adding to that race.
Night never truly settled over Tokyo Racecourse. Not when people had already started camping out at the entry gates.
From ten o'clock to nearly midnight, the campus network had elbowed me around for a full hour and a half. I surrender.
No more huffing tonight.
Next chapter—
The fateful Satsuki Sho.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter172)
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