What kind of ending should I give Kyokuhou?
Fuka Shirayuki sank into a long, long silence.
To be blunt—
She was brainstorming fun elements, trying to construct the ending of this Challenge Cup.
Her fingertips flew across the keyboard.
Staring at the nearly blank document in front of her, she paused to think…
Then—
She suddenly remembered something.
Kyokuhou and that "Lady" were connected!
Right—those two were sisters or something, weren't they?
Unlike the Fuka family's situation, these two were the kind of sisters who genuinely couldn't stand each other.
But that didn't matter.
Just having that relationship was enough.
And then, Shirayuki thought of something really interesting.
She typed:
[Chapter 16: Kyokuhou's Death!]
[The moment Kyokuhou meets the protagonist…]
[Kyokuhou freezes, staring at the protagonist, and mutters as if to herself: "Y-you… you're not dead?"]
[Kyokuhou suddenly remembers who the protagonist is.]
[All her life, Kyokuhou never became a queen. Perhaps one reason was… she could never forget the protagonist's melancholy eyes.]
[That day, when the Lady came to break off the engagement, Kyokuhou stood to the side and witnessed the entire process with her own eyes!]
[And the protagonist only smiled and said: "Three Rages Return!!!"]
["I… will fight again!!!"]
["You…"]
["At Tracen Academy, you're just a loli!"]
["One day, I'll fight my way to the Lady's face and shout: Thirty years east of the river! Thirty years west of the river!!!"]
[And as those words fall— the race begins.]
After writing that, Shirayuki just stuffed the chapter full of "wild-history" nonsense on purpose.
Perfect. You're sisters, right?
Then as "sisters bound by deep affection," you can suffer together.
She clicked "Post."
Shirayuki didn't check the comments right away. Instead, she started writing the next chapter.
"Hoo…"
She wiped the sweat off her forehead, thinking: Man, I'm actually diligent as hell.
Then came Chapter 17.
[Chapter 17: Sorry—Move Aside. Excuse Me.]
Since Kyokuhou had already finished the whole "trash-hype" segment…
All Shirayuki needed now was to calmly write out the race itself and the ending.
Heat?
What heat?
Isn't Miss Kyokuhou holding the spotlight for me?
[Kyokuhou is faster than 99.9% of people—]
[but today…]
[she meets that one exception.]
["If you want to challenge the Lady, then step over my corpse!" Kyokuhou blocks the protagonist with the grit and backbone of a deathmatch!]
[Just as all spectators believe today will be a bloody duel—]
[the protagonist sneers: "Sorry. Move aside…"]
[Excuse me!!!]
[In an instant—she flashes forward like a streak of light!]
[In Kyokuhou's inverted gaze, within that moment—]
[she doesn't see the protagonist's face in those eyes.]
[As if they were saying…]
[You.]
[Are just a stray dog by the roadside!!!]
Shirayuki poured out thousands of words in one go. She didn't stop for even a second.
Only when she finished and started fixing typos did she finally exhale hard.
"Hoo."
Her small face was overflowing with excitement.
Holy crap!
How did I even come up with this plot?
Am I a god!?
This is so fun!!!
Now Shirayuki couldn't wait to see it actually happen.
And more than that…
Thinking of everything Kyokuhou had done for her lately, Shirayuki's lips curled upward again.
When should I drop the mask?
When I stand in front of you again…
will you recognize me?
Recognize that—
Fuka Shirayuki is that "angel."
And then, combined with the three-year promise…
what kind of priceless expression will Miss Kyokuhou make?
Gah!
Hear the Way in the morning—die in the evening, and it's worth it!
Even if I died on the spot, the ticket would've paid for itself!
Meanwhile…
The audience who'd already bought Challenge Cup tickets still had no idea what kind of show they were about to witness.
Shirayuki stood up from her screen, went to the kitchen, poured herself some water, wandered around twice, then sat back down and hit F5 to refresh.
Resting while giving readers time to respond.
There were still several days until the Challenge Cup.
She couldn't immediately see Miss Kyokuhou's face…
Shirayuki felt a little regretful, but it was fine.
She'd start by checking reader reactions.
The first thing she saw was a baffled comment:
[Why is the author still obsessed with that stupid "three-year promise"!?]
Shirayuki's face twisted.
She coldly typed a reply under it:
"The three-year promise is the underlying source code of Horse-Breaking the Heavens."
Another comment:
[Just saying. Nothing else. I just wanna say it.]
[Flip it! Flip it!!! The author says, then flips Kyokuhou in the frying pan to the other side.]
[When will the protagonist fight up to the Lady's face? Hurry up already!]
Then a mix of meme-trash in front and normal plot talk behind:
[It's insane how she writes, but her race predictions are always right. You wanna say she's a prophet, and she turns around and makes up wild-history nonsense again…]
[I can't even imagine what that "Miss Dongna breaking off the engagement" scene looked like.]
Looking at the garbage memes and then the serious discussion, Shirayuki expressionlessly lifted her cup and typed three words:
"Banking industry…"
At the same time, she could hear the system notification in her head pinging nonstop:
[Popularity +1]
[Popularity +1]
Shirayuki thought: This system is a piece of crap too!
It's exactly like Livestream Room 6657—always "+1, +1" every day!
System: "???"
Then it continued to remind her, all pitiful and wronged:
[Node: Three-Year Promise!]
[Current event construction: 30%.]
Shirayuki raised a brow, amused.
"…Huh?"
At that moment—
Elsewhere.
"The novel you bookmarked has updated!"
A chime sounded on the Lady's phone.
Ever since Tokai Teio's defeat had been written out exactly like what later happened…
And since Gold Artisan's entire race had been predicted perfectly…
As someone on the "early access server," the Lady had specially downloaded the app and bookmarked this novel.
Before that, she never read novels.
After that…
she saw the protagonist who had a "three-year promise" with her.
"…?"
For the first time in a long while, the Lady showed hesitation.
For once, she didn't instantly erase it with "There's no obligation for that to happen!"
Was it real?
Did something like that actually exist?
She couldn't remember.
She couldn't recall it at all…
So she simply didn't waste energy spiraling on it.
Some things were destined.
The more you try to stop them, the more you become like Oedipus in Greek prophecy—
The more you act, the more you flee, the more you cause the ending to arrive.
She dragged the chapter bar forward and noticed today's chapters involved Kyokuhou.
Instantly, the Lady became alert, fully focused, reading the whole thing…
"So it's predicting Kyokuhou will lose?" she murmured, staring at the text.
Then she raised her head with interest, looked toward Kyokuhou in the distance, and called softly:
"Kyokuhou."
"What?" Kyokuhou answered coldly without even lifting her head.
The Lady interlaced her fingers, propping her chin like Commander Ikari, and said:
"Someone says you'll lose."
"…?"
Kyokuhou's face temperature visibly shot up.
She snapped her head up.
"I will absolutely not lose——!" she shouted, as if speaking a hypnotic mantra.
What a joke! Bastard!
If it were the old Kyokuhou… she might've actually feared losing to Fuka Shirayuki.
But now—
Kyokuhou was completely different.
Now, she lacked nothing.
The miracle of being helped by an angel…
Her rapidly growing strength…!
Even if the Lady herself showed up, Kyokuhou was confident she could win 100%!
And in that situation, you still insist she'll lose to Fuka Shirayuki?
Why don't you just say Fuka Shirayuki is the angel too!
All equally impossible!
—That's all it was!
After forcibly completing the logic chain in her head, stubborn Kyokuhou glared at the Lady again.
"Are you trying to mess with my mindset?"
"…," the Lady sighed. "No matter what, we're horse girls from the same family."
"Just…"
"This person's predictions are… special."
Kyokuhou was still stubborn, like a teacher having an episode in a padded jacket era:
"That kind of thing… has zero chance of happening!"
Even if Kyokuhou was half-buried one day and on her way to cremation—
She'd still have one mouth left that was hard as steel.
The Lady tested the waters, telling her about the novel, then sent the title to Kyokuhou's phone and told her to search it herself.
The more Kyokuhou read, the colder and more alarmed she felt.
What…
Tokai Teio and Gold Artisan were predicted?
Who's next?
Is Russian roulette landing on me!?
Kyokuhou 啪 shut off her phone and burst into laughter.
"But you're not saying all this is real, right?"
"…," the Lady fell silent.
Kyokuhou: "A three-year promise? Gods and tyrants dueling? What are the odds any of that happens?"
Seeing how stubborn Kyokuhou was, the Lady didn't want to continue this topic either.
Besides—
If Kyokuhou won or lost, it would conveniently test whether this novel's predictions were truly accurate.
Once is coincidence.
Twice is luck…
Then what about the third time?
What is the third time?
The Lady thought.
She didn't press further. Instead, she said:
"Fine."
"Then…"
"Respected Miss Kyokuhou, could you do me a favor?"
Kyokuhou tilted her head, thinking the Lady actually had to ask her for help?
So the stuff in novels about "after a miracle, you climb to the peak of life" was real after all!
With a crooked-smile Dragon King grin, Kyokuhou asked:
"What favor?"
"Help me keep an eye out," the Lady said, "during the Challenge Cup—see if there's any horse girl with particularly melancholy eyes."
Watching the Lady take the three-year promise this seriously…
Kyokuhou suddenly felt inexplicably panicked.
At the same time…
some strange memories surged up in her mind.
In those memories—
that horse girl's eyes…
were a blue-green shade, like deep cyan.
Time quickly arrived: Challenge Cup day.
Outside Hanshin Racecourse, thousands of spectators lined up.
Today's race had a lot going on.
For example, that bratty little demon Kyokuhou publicly declaring she'd "snipe" Fuka Shirayuki—
Some of Tokai Teio's fans were dying to know the answer.
Was Shirayuki's win over Teio really just luck?
Teio's fans desperately wanted Kyokuhou to avenge them!
In the cold winter air with a Christmas vibe—
Fuka Shirayuki entered through the staff passage with Fuka Chiori.
It was the first time they'd ever gotten this kind of special treatment.
The little one looked around with curious eyes.
The crowd seated in the stands…
the staff walking past them…
When something went from "unrelated" to "related," Chiori stared at everything unfamiliar.
She instinctively shrank back a little—
clearly not ready to face this world.
Then she gathered her courage, tugged on her sister's sleeve, and said softly:
"Big sis."
"Hm?" Shirayuki tilted her head up at a proud forty-five-degree angle.
"Good luck…"
"I believe you can definitely win!"
Chiori clutched her sister's sleeve, cheering timidly.
Shirayuki chuckled.
"Alright, alright…"
"Don't worry."
"Right now I———— am invincible!!!"
[Popularity: 299]
[Popularity: 300]
[Chronicle of Time: Challenge Cup.]
[Rewrite successful——!]
Even if Gold Artisan showed up in person—
Shirayuki would still make that brat crawl back in shame!
But Chiori clearly didn't understand where her sister's confidence came from…
After all, her sister had only trained at Tracen for a short time. Who knew how much it really helped?
Chiori didn't say it out loud. Under Shirayuki's gaze, she simply urged:
"Then hurry to the backstage!"
"Don't make the same kind of joke as last time!"
"Mm!"
Shirayuki reminded her, "Take care of yourself."
Then she turned and walked into another passage—
the warm backstage waiting room where horse girls rested before entering.
And Chiori's destination was the spectator stands.
The sisters parted for now.
In an empty corridor, Shirayuki walked forward step by step…
until she pushed open the door.
Warm air from the heater and soft LED lighting spilled into her eyes.
Out of the corner of her vision, she caught a familiar figure.
She thought—
So we really can meet again soon, Miss Kyokuhou.
Smiling, Shirayuki walked up beside her.
"Hello?"
"Miss Kyokuhou."
Fuka Shirayuki, wearing a sports outfit, suddenly appeared next to Kyokuhou.
Hearing that familiar voice—
that familiar form of address—
Kyokuhou instantly turned her head!
And she saw the angel classmate she'd been longing for—
so moved she was almost in tears.
Angel classmate…
Did she come specifically to support me?
Did she come all the way to the Challenge Cup backstage just to cheer for me?
So when she said "you'll know my name soon," this is what she meant!?
Kyokuhou was overwhelmed.
Who says there are no good people in this world!?
My angel classmate is way too good!!!
Buffing me with a blessed holy item from the Three Goddesses—
and even coming to the race venue to cheer?!
My god!
How does someone like this exist!?
Selfless dedication! Beautiful character!
But then…
Wait.
Why is she wearing a sports outfit to cheer?
Kyokuhou belatedly noticed what Shirayuki was wearing.
"…Uh…"
Even her words started to hesitate.
But—wait—
horse girls wearing sports outfits is totally normal, right?
Kyokuhou was just about to comfort herself when she suddenly remembered something and eagerly asked:
"Angel!"
"Didn't we have an agreement last time?"
"That the next time we met, you'd tell me your name!?"
"Right? That happened, didn't it?"
Facing Kyokuhou's hopeful gaze, Shirayuki wore her emotionless fake smile and thought…
Yeah.
That did happen.
So—
Should I tell her my name right now?
The angel she's been yearning for…
is the roadside stray dog she's been wanting to kick to death this whole time?
What kind of light-novel plot is this!?
Shirayuki decided not to hide it anymore. She opened her mouth:
"Me…"
"My name is—"
Just then.
A staff member responsible for checking entry data walked in.
The moment she entered, her eyes locked onto "Fuka Shirayuki" on the roster.
No choice.
Last time they screamed for ages backstage and then found out she was sitting in the stands.
This time, the staff wanted to make absolutely sure Shirayuki was actually present.
So she called out:
"Contestant #2, Fuka Shirayuki—Fuka Shirayuki, are you here?"
Kyokuhou stared as the "angel" raised her hand and replied brightly:
"Here!"
"I'm right here!"
The staff looked at her. "You're Fuka Shirayuki?"
"Genuine, no fakes. Here's my registration proof." Shirayuki tilted her head with a fake smile. "Want to check it?"
Kyokuhou went blank.
On that shiny ID card, she saw the name:
Fuka Shirayuki
The staff shook her head. "No need. Just confirming you're here."
Kyokuhou opened her mouth.
Her mind felt like it left her body.
She stared dumbly and asked:
"Y-you… what did you say your name was again?"
"Fuka Shirayuki?" Shirayuki said happily, trying to spread the feeling to Kyokuhou.
Why aren't you smiling?
Smile, Kyokuhou.
Smile!
Tanoshii! Smile!
Bring sunshine to this world!!!
Kyokuhou: "…"
"Y-you…"
"Ah…?"
"Me…?"
She remembered all her big talk.
Kicking Fuka Shirayuki would be like kicking a stray dog by the roadside!
Snipe! I'll snipe you hard!
But now—
Kyokuhou pointed at Shirayuki, almost completely losing the ability to speak.
"Y-you…"
"YOU!!!"
Kyokuhou's face twisted.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier!!!!!!"
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