Time flew by. Two months had passed since Suzuka's conversation with Kitano, and there wasn't much time left in Mejiro Palmer's three-month bet.
"Only one month left. It seems this bet is already in my pocket."
In the student council office, Mejiro Palmer paid a rare visit. Symboli Rudolf, the president, voluntarily gave up her seat for Palmer and even prepared a cup of black tea with plenty of milk and sugar. As she handed it to her, she said in a relaxed tone:
"It's too early to be so confident, Palmer. You know what they say about counting your chickens. How is that junior of yours doing? I heard you've been personally training her."
"That's right." Palmer spoke of Mejiro Dober without any reservation, likely because she was sure of her victory. This sister, who was known to be extremely strict with both herself and others, offered rare praise. "Dober's talent is quite good. Even as a filly, a Mejiro filly must not lose to any colt. Dober clearly meets this standard."
"She has the ability to become the next Filly Triple Crown winner in the Mejiro family after me. The strength she's showing now is enough for her to win the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies—unless an unexpected rival appears, but I've studied all the recently debuted fillies, and that possibility is too small."
"...Palmer, you actually care a lot about your sisters, don't you?" Rudolf couldn't help but chuckle. "Why don't you show them your concern, so they don't think you're such an unfeeling sister?"
However, Rudolf's words were met with Palmer's signature demonic side-eye. Though she said nothing, her gaze was filled with a "You have the nerve to lecture me on this?" meaning, clearly telling the Emperor to sort out her own relationship with her sister, Sirius Symboli, first.
Rudolf understood the meaning in her eyes and silently closed her mouth. Now that she had her memories back, she had forgotten some things about this world. In the last world, with Kitano's reminder, the conflict between her and Sirius had not escalated to this point. They were still rival sisters, a far cry from the explosive situation now where they could barely stand to be in the same room.
Rudolf actually had no resentment towards Sirius now. The family dispute that had revolved around them was something they were both victims of. It was just that as children, they couldn't see through it, and by the time they grew up and realized, too much animosity had accumulated, and they couldn't bring themselves to reconcile.
But now, with her past memories, the Rudolf who had been a true sister to Sirius in the last world felt that perhaps she should take the initiative to let go of some of her pride... Being sisters with Sirius wasn't so bad. At least, it was a scene Kitano would have been happy to see.
"Let's change the subject," Rudolf said, smoothly moving on. "Lately, there hasn't been much movement from Special Week, Oguri Cap, and Suzuka. Although the news of them choosing a disciple caused quite a stir in the academy, they haven't made any progress so far."
"That's where my confidence lies." Palmer's smile widened. She had never considered these three as rivals from the beginning. She had only dragged them into the bet to ensure they wouldn't mention it to Kitano; it was a necessary means to shut them up.
And from the looks of it... everything was developing as she had expected. More than two months had passed, and it was now the end of November. The three had made almost no progress in choosing a representative.
Special Week hadn't given up yet, but Oguri had already decided not to pursue it. As for Suzuka... Palmer was completely unconcerned.
"I heard Suzuka-san stopped recruiting escape-style horse girls two months ago. Now she's just doing her daily training as usual."
"It's just that this time, she seems to be getting very close to Trainer Kitano... Rudolf, do you know anything?"
Since she had been at the Mejiro home guiding Dober for the past two months, she wasn't too aware of the news at Tracen. But she believed Rudolf was the one who knew the most about what was happening around Kitano. With her "interest" in him and her jealous nature... if Rudolf wasn't concerned, then she had no need to be.
"That's right. Two months ago, Suzuka had an emotional breakdown. I was there at the time. C.B. said it was Trainer Kitano who calmed her down."
Rudolf nodded. But contrary to Palmer's guess, she didn't see the innocent Suzuka as a threat at all. Instead, she was extremely pleased and supportive of Kitano's actions. "Their relationship has indeed improved a little since then... At least Suzuka-san doesn't seem to be so afraid of him anymore. Before, she would only dare to stay several meters away and never get close."
"What? Was she worried his illness would be contagious?" Hearing this, Palmer quickly dismissed Suzuka from her mind, and perhaps because of her actions, she had developed a slight misunderstanding, her tone tinged with a hint of disdain.
"I don't think that's it." Although Rudolf also didn't understand why the past Suzuka had been deliberately distant from her Kitano, she was now very happy to see that with his help, she seemed to have let go of a lot.
As expected of my Kitano... he always seems to be able to find the right way to sweep away any difficult horse girl's negative emotions. Even I was attracted to him because of this back then...
At this thought, the smile on Rudolf's face widened even more, a faint, intoxicated blush appearing. And all of this was seen by Palmer, and this "lofty flower" of the Mejiro family, in response, showed a smile... a not-so-friendly smile.
"Well then, let's get down to business—Palmer, could you do me a favor and put on the live broadcast of the Mile Championship for me?"
"Is there a Tracen junior in it?" Palmer put down her teacup and picked up a public tablet in the student council office, searching for the live broadcast while asking.
"Yes, a girl named Taiki Shuttle. This is her second time challenging the Mile Championship. Her talent in short and mile distances is very good. She might win a G1 this time."
Though she said this, Rudolf's attention was not on the race, but on the work in front of her. The multi-tasking Rudolf continued, "As the student council president, I have to pay special attention to the performance of these outstanding juniors. Regardless of the outcome, their experience will be a reference for other students."
"Then I'll watch too. I hope this race won't be too boring."
Palmer nodded. Hearing Rudolf say that Taiki Shuttle had talent in the mile, she immediately thought of Mejiro Dober, who was also a top miler. Perhaps they would meet in a race in the future. She might as well pay attention to her race.
After she clicked on the live broadcast, soon, all the sounds and images of the Kyoto Racecourse, where the Mile Championship was being held, echoed through the student council office. Palmer focused her attention on the race, while Rudolf was still busy with her own work, waiting for the race to start before watching the live broadcast intently.
At this moment, the popularity introduction was underway at the racecourse, and as it happened, the "Taiki Shuttle" they had just been discussing was just coming out.
"With the fifth highest popularity, Taiki Shuttle! The horse girl who defeated Seeking the Pearl in the Takamatsunomiya Kinen, crushing the Broye family's dream of dominating the race for three generations. This time, in the Mile Championship, she will once again face Seeking the Pearl. Can she achieve victory again?"
"The Broye family, a standard noble bloodline, but their strength doesn't quite match their lineage."
Hearing the name of a familiar family, the playful smile on Palmer's lips widened a little. But as the treasure of the Mejiro family, she indeed had the confidence to comment on other families. After all, in Japan now, the Symboli and Mejiro families were the two largest in the horse girl world!
"Then the first popularity is, without a doubt, that young lady Seeking the Pearl. How boring. But a commoner horse girl defeating a noble bloodline... that does add a bit of interest... Hm?"
However, just as Palmer was commenting, a passing shot on the live broadcast seemed to have caught her attention. She almost immediately pressed the pause button, turned to the side to look at Rudolf, who had noticed something, and handed her the tablet, her tone unusually uneasy as she asked:
"Rudolf, look there—doesn't that look like Trainer Kitano and the others?"
"Who?"
Palmer's words made Rudolf freeze for a moment. But soon, with a blur, the tablet in Palmer's hand was snatched away by her. Rudolf squinted her eyes and searched the paused screen. Soon, in the upper left corner, she found a blurry figure.
Although the quality of the live broadcast was extremely poor, and the shot of the audience was just a blurry mosaic... but Rudolf also noticed the figures beside the person who looked like Kitano. Among them, a particularly tall, ash-haired figure directly confirmed her thoughts!
"Gold Ship! That really is Trainer Kitano!"
"But... why are they at the Mile Championship? Are they there to watch the race?"
"...We'll know soon enough." And at this moment, although Palmer was also confused, she had a premonition that things were starting to get out of control. To get more information, she immediately tapped the tablet again. Soon, the live broadcast resumed and automatically jumped to the latest progress.
"Next up is our first popularity for this race!" And when it was time to announce the first popularity, the announcer's voice became particularly high-pitched. And before he could speak, the entire audience was already in an uproar, each holding up their own cheering sticks made of newspapers and various objects, and unevenly shouting that horse girl's name!
Clearly, all the spectators of this race had come for this number one popular horse girl. And such high popularity was rare even among the horse girls of Tracen. For a moment, even Rudolf and Palmer couldn't guess who had won the favor of so many spectators.
"I can already hear the cheers of the audience! That's right! This horse girl is the one who, over a year ago, flashed past like a shooting star in the Tennō Shō (Autumn)!"
"But today, she has returned to the racetrack! And she will use this G1 race as proof of her return! Let's welcome the number one popularity! The otherworldly escaper—Silence Suzuka!"
"Silence Suzuka?!" X2
With the announcer's excited voice and the cheers of the boiling audience, Palmer and Rudolf, who were completely unaware of this, finally reacted when Suzuka, in her racing silks, appeared on the popularity stage once again. They stood up in unison with a gasp.
"Impossible!" X2
They both shouted this at the same time, but then immediately fell silent, because they both realized the loophole in the problem, a loophole they had not thought of before.
The moment Suzuka appeared, Palmer immediately thought of the content of her bet! "All retired horse girls will choose one horse girl to represent them"—but Silence Suzuka had never retired!
Although she had been away for over a year due to her fracture, she had never officially announced her retirement. And in Palmer's bet, the only non-retired horse girls were Gold Ship and Nakayama Festa, and they were competing with Dober, directly participating in "who can win a higher-grade race."
And now, because of Palmer's small oversight, forgetting about the special existence of Suzuka, and now that she could step onto the racetrack and was not retired, she was naturally a candidate on this competition list!
And what made Palmer's face darken slightly at this moment was that the bet clearly stated, "if the race grade is the same, prize money, popularity, and other comprehensive factors will be considered."
Although the Mile Championship and the few races in the rookie year were all G1 races, the Mile Championship was, after all, a senior-level race. Even if its popularity and prize money could not be compared to races like the Japanese Derby or the Arima Kinen, it was definitely higher than the G1 races in the rookie period!
At this moment, Palmer's interlocking, seamless chains that restricted the other participants were now, due to this unexpected event of Silence Suzuka,反锁ing the rule-maker herself!
If Suzuka's comeback this time really resulted in a victory, then Dober would have no chance, and her plan to send her family's sisters to be mentored by Kitano... would also be aborted!
And unlike the gloomy-faced Palmer, what surprised Rudolf was that she, as the student council president, was completely unaware of Suzuka's comeback. She had not even received an application from her. This was definitely not normal!
And what made Rudolf feel even stranger was, why was Kitano also at the scene for this race? Although their relationship seemed to be more harmonious than before, her race was not something he should drag his sick body to watch, right? Not to mention, why didn't Gold Ship and Nakayama Festa stop him?
Unless... there was only one possibility. Suzuka, without her knowledge, had become a member of his team?
But why hadn't he even sent her a contract application? This was definitely not right. Rudolf knew very well that his lifespan was directly linked to whether his charges could win races. If Suzuka had become his charge this time, he would definitely have given her the application as soon as possible. Why hadn't she received it?
Or... had someone usurped her authority as student council president? Behind all this, who was the pusher in the dark?
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