After finishing the day's training, Luo Cheng returned to his dorm with a tired body. This was the first time he had properly gone through the whole process. Usually, he would give Teio her training plan and then go about his own business. Teio, like she had a GPS, would find him no matter where he was and report, "I'm done, Trainer. What should I do next?" This was the horse girl's standard dialogue after finishing a training session. Even if he locked himself in his room, Tokai Teio would get in. The most outrageous time was when Luo Cheng hid in a closet, and Tokai Teio still found him precisely, like a ghost, and stood right next to him. After that, Luo Cheng grew to like closets.
"Do I have to train like this from now on...?" Even just standing on the sidelines for several hours was truly uncomfortable. Why am I not a horse girl? The thought popped into Luo Cheng's mind. If he were a horse girl, wouldn't he have an inexhaustible supply of stamina? Every time he saw those horse girls running for hours, he thought they were superhumans. Luo Cheng had experienced a horse girl's speed. He had Tokai Teio give him a piggyback ride around the training field and almost threw up his breakfast. The speed was so fast you could say they were driving a car. You could even use a horse girl's ears as a steering wheel without any problem, as long as you could endure the bone-shaking vibrations.
However, becoming a horse girl would mean he would lose something important, something Luo Cheng couldn't accept. In a school full of beautiful girls, if he transmigrated as a female, how would that be any different from killing him? No, that would be even worse than killing him! At least as a male, he could use those horse girls as body pillows. As a female, they would just be figurines. When he thought about it that way, his transmigrating as he was, was an act of divine mercy.
Speaking of divinities, there was one thing Luo Cheng had to mention. In the worldview of horse girls, all illogical things were related to the gods. According to the lore, the gods here had physical forms and were not just ethereal beings. The goddesses who created the horse girls were the Three Goddesses. If he could meet them, maybe he could figure out what was going on. Luo Cheng had considered this problem and came up with two ways to meet them. One was the fountain in front of the school, which had statues of the Three Goddesses. He could pray to the statues. The second was the shrine, where he could make a wish that might make the Three Goddesses appear.
A few months ago, Luo Cheng was so tormented by loneliness that he had a mental breakdown. He ran to the fountain and screamed at the statues of the Three Goddesses, hoping they would help him. But nothing happened. The game world had no Three Goddesses.
So, what about the real world? Did the real world have the Three Goddesses? Thinking this, Luo Cheng suddenly sat up. He took a taxi to the nearest shrine, threw in some money, and made a wish. He didn't know the proper steps for a shrine prayer, so he followed what he had seen in movies, went through the motions, and shook the bell. He sat in the shrine for half a day, and nothing happened. By the time Luo Cheng returned to Tracen, it was already midnight. A cool moon hung in the sky, casting a thin white veil on the ground.
Perhaps this world had no Three Goddesses. If they existed, they would have appeared a long time ago. They would have appeared when Luo Cheng started messing with the horse girls. Now, he had almost slept with half the people at Tracen and still couldn't see a trace of them. Maybe in this illogical world, the Three Goddesses were also game characters. There was no more desperate answer than this. The only beings who could stand against the rules were also bound by them.
Oh well. Besides the occasional unbearable feeling of loneliness, this world had no other flaws. He had food and clothes, was surrounded by beautiful girls, and could do whatever he wanted. Looking at the moon in the sky, Luo Cheng walked to the center of the training field. He looked up and then lay down flat. He loved lying here in the evening breeze, holding Cafe in his arms. Her fair face and golden eyes were a perfect match for the night. Those were some of the rare moments when Luo Cheng didn't have any impure thoughts. He treated Cafe like a friend and told her about his past. Occasionally, Cafe would make a "mm" sound, and he didn't know if it was just her instinct or if she really heard what he said. Luo Cheng hoped it was the latter. Humans are social creatures. They need to talk. They can't live alone. Even if no one is around, they need to pretend someone is. Being lonely for too long makes you lose your mind.
Time passed by, second by second. The evening breeze blew. Footsteps sounded from nearby. He looked up and saw the black-haired girl approaching. Her beautiful black hair blended with the night, and her fair face reflected the moon's halo. Her delicate cheeks looked even fairer and lovelier in the moonlight. But the most beautiful things were her eyes. Those clear, flawless eyes, like the stars in the night sky, were a stunning gold that made his heart flutter.
"Trainer, you came early. I was wondering where you were." She smoothed her skirt, put her legs together, and sat down obediently next to him.
"Cafe..."
"What is it, Trainer?"
"Lap pillow."
"?"
Cafe blinked. It took her a while to understand what he was saying. A blush appeared on her cheeks. She put her legs down and said softly, "Please use it, Trainer."
Luo Cheng moved his body and rested his head on Cafe's lap. The warm, soft sensation enveloped him. As expected of a max-affection horse girl, she can agree to this request easily. Considering Cafe's affection was as high as Tokai Teio's, she would probably agree to even more outrageous things. Leaning closer to her, Luo Cheng smelled a faint body scent on her, and a hint of soap. It seemed she had just taken a bath in her dorm.
"Cafe, you can see ghosts, right?"
"Yes, Trainer." She nodded. "I've been able to see them since I was very young."
"Do you think ghosts are real? Is it possible that only you can see them, and they don't actually exist? That your world is different from everyone else's?"
Cafe shook her head. She had never considered such a complicated question. She had accepted that being able to see ghosts was her quirk and had embraced her uniqueness.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world, and all of you are fake. Maybe even I'm fake, and I've already died, and this is my last beautiful dream." Luo Cheng lay on Cafe's lap, venting his emotions.
Cafe looked at him. Unlike everyone else, Luo Cheng's eyes were a bottomless black, as if no light could penetrate them. Even though he was venting with his words, his eyes showed no change in emotion. Cafe pondered for a moment and chose the safest approach. She kissed him.