Oguri Cap didn't go home for breakfast that morning. Instead, Kitahara brought her to Kasamatsu Tracen Academy, where they had a cafeteria buffet.
The industries related to horse girls in this world are massive. While gambling related to this field is strictly prohibited, other projects can still generate enormous amounts of funding.
Take the peripheral industries, for example. Just the race highlight reels and cartoon figurines of horse girls alone represent a market worth tens of billions. The related training facilities, venues, educational programs, and other assets are worth even more.
Against this backdrop, as one of the core institutions of the horse girl industry, Tracen Academy never lacks funding for operations or sponsorships, even the regional academies.
This differs from the other world, where "academies" or racetracks were completely self-sufficient. Many closed down due to poor management, but that situation doesn't exist in this world. Part of the regional academies' finances are supported by the central government.
So even for a buffet, the cafeteria at Kasamatsu Tracen Academy offers a rich variety of dishes.
You could tell this from Oguri Cap's amazement when she arrived at the cafeteria.
"Can... can I really eat for free? Can I eat as much as I want?" She let out an incredibly surprised voice, with an undertone of almost unbelievable happiness.
As someone who trains horse girls, trainers are also very important and respectable professionals in this world.
Even at a regional Tracen Academy, Kitahara has quite a few privileges, including free cafeteria meals, and he can even bring others along.
"Of course you can. I'm a trainer at this academy, and besides, buffets are supposed to be unlimited. As long as you can finish it, you can take as much as you want..."
Kitahara was only halfway through his smiling explanation when Oguri Cap completely stopped listening.
After confirming that she could eat for free without restrictions, the surprise on her face completely transformed into excitement and happiness, and she rushed eagerly to the cafeteria counter.
"Hello, could I have one of these, and this, and this, and this... oh, can I have all of this? No wasting? Don't worry, I can finish it all."
Before Kitahara knew it, Oguri Cap was already sitting at a table with a huge plate of food, while behind her, the chef at the cafeteria counter wore a completely stunned expression.
Kitahara's expression was also trending toward stunned, because the amount of food Oguri Cap had taken was truly a bit much.
Oguri Cap was probably around five foot four or so, which is pretty tall for an Uma Musume. When she sat down, her upper body towered well above the table.
However, her plate was piled high with potato pancakes and stir-fried noodles, stacked so high it actually rose above the top of her head.
Not only that, after she set down her plate, she went back to the cafeteria counter and got a huge serving of rice. The bowl, big as a basin, was not only filled to the brim but piled high on top.
This made the stunned expression on the cafeteria chef's face even more pronounced.
Kitahara was stunned for a moment too, but quickly snapped out of it. He already knew about Oguri Cap's character setting and had witnessed this big eater's appetite firsthand a few days ago, so he wasn't as shocked now.
Thank goodness this body is already a trainer with Tracen Academy's funding behind it. Otherwise, if I wanted to train Oguri Cap, her appetite alone would eat me out of house and home.
Chuckling to himself, Kitahara also went to the cafeteria counter and got two potato pancakes, then brought them over to sit beside Oguri Cap.
In this short time, Oguri Cap had already demolished eight or nine potato pancakes and polished off most of her bowl of rice.
"You don't need to eat so fast. Nobody's going to take it away from you." Seeing Oguri Cap wolfing down her food with crumbs and rice grains around her mouth, Kitahara couldn't help but laugh and gently advise her.
Oguri Cap's eating suddenly stopped.
Under Kitahara's surprised gaze, she turned her head, licked her greasy lips, and spoke very seriously.
"Mama told me to eat well and run well, to become an amazing horse girl."
"To become an amazing horse girl..."
Repeating that sentence, Kitahara's tone became much more serious. "So what do you think makes an amazing horse girl, Oguri Cap?"
Kitahara had thought through many ways to communicate with Oguri Cap beforehand. In the end, considering her somewhat airheaded personality, he decided it was best to just go with the flow.
Whatever she said, he'd follow up naturally.
However, he didn't expect that Oguri Cap, who had just been so serious, would suddenly zone out again.
"An amazing horse girl... I don't really know."
After her expression returned to that innocent look, she went back to eating, and her speech became much more muffled, though you could still make out what she meant.
"Mama told me about trainers, but... I'm sorry, I don't know anything about races or Tracen or stuff like that."
She doesn't know, huh... well, that's not surprising. Last time she acted like she knew nothing about any of it.
While Kitahara was thinking this over, Oguri Cap continued eating and talking at the same time: "I just really love running, so Mama signed me up for this school."
"And because I really love running, Mama told me that if I join your team as a trainer, I'd get to run, so I figured there wouldn't be any problems."
"So if it's about running, I'm totally fine with that, Trainer."
Oguri Cap paused her eating for a moment, puffing out her cheeks like a little hamster, and pumped her fist toward Kitahara to show her determination, then immediately went back to chowing down.
"You really love running... so why do you love running, Oguri Cap?"
Though following her lead seemed to get him a strange answer just now, Kitahara felt like this way of communicating didn't seem problematic.
If nothing else, despite having just met, they could talk without any barriers, which seemed to suggest that Oguri Cap was suited to this straightforward approach without any ulterior motives.
Sure enough, without any hesitation, Oguri Cap stopped eating and looked over very seriously, her gaze filled with complete sincerity.
"Because I can run, that's why I love running."
If you told most people this logic, they'd probably be completely confused. After all, for the vast majority of people, running is as ordinary as eating or breathing. There's nothing particularly loveable about it.
You never hear anyone say they love eating because they can eat, or love breathing because they can breathe.
But Kitahara, who knew about Oguri Cap's childhood from the other world, immediately understood what she was really saying.
He fell silent.
But Oguri Cap didn't stay silent. After she finished speaking, she went back to eating, though this time her movements were clearly not as ravenous as before. Instead, as if carrying some complex emotion in her heart, she methodically picked up grains of rice and brought them to her mouth.
Her tone slowed down too.
"Being able to stand up and run... for me, just that alone is already a miracle."
"My knees used to be really weak. I couldn't even stand up."
"If Mama hadn't never given up on me, massaging me every single day, finding all sorts of ways to make sure I didn't go hungry, maybe even now I'd still only be able to lie in bed."
"Watching other people stand up, walk around, run, while I couldn't do any of that myself."
"So being able to stand up and run is already a miracle for me."
"So being able to run makes me incredibly happy and I love it so much. That's all there is to it."