"Move, move, move! Everyone, get out of my way!"
King Halo finally grasped the optimal timing and accelerated, leaping past horse girl after horse girl. Her speed could only be described as a flash of light.
"I absolutely will not lose again... just like this... I'm the King!!!" Her speed surged dramatically at this moment, leaving the horse girls far behind. Wind roared in her ears. The air formed opposing currents.
"It's King Halo!"
"King Halo has broken through!"
"She's approaching Grass Wonder at incredible speed!"
"This is the real dark horse! The venue has been pushed to another climax! The shouts are getting more intense!"
Some cheered for Grass Wonder, others shouted encouragement for this dark horse. Facts proved that the more dark horses appeared on the track, the louder the cheers. They didn't even know why they were shouting so much. They just wanted to cheer for the horse girls on the field.
"Go! You can do it!"
"King Halo, go!"
"Keep going!"
Even the celestial bodies in the sky operate ceaselessly according to certain laws, but the appearance of a single shooting star can cause earth-shattering changes to the entire world.
The gears of fate for a certain horse girl changed their trajectory. At this moment, a change occurred.
Only Hayato could see it. Just now, at the final 200 meters, King Halo's entire body emitted rainbow-colored light, and several English letters appeared above her head.
[Call Me King!]
Meaning: Recognize me as King.
Task Triggered: You have helped King Halo awaken her inherent skill: Call King (Unique Low-Star/Gold Border Lv.1). If this horse girl wins this race, you will receive 12 attribute points.
[Call Me King] (Unique Low-Star/Gold Skill Lv.1): If able to perform calmly on the track, at the final 200 meters, she can demonstrate true ability and increase her speed.
"Huh? The unique skill?"
Looking at King Halo's data panel now, Hayato saw that a new colored skill, "Call Me King!" had been added.
Hayato hadn't seen horse girls' skills before and thought it was because he couldn't see them. That King Halo originally had this skill, but just hadn't activated it.
Turns out that wasn't it at all. It wasn't that he couldn't see them. These horse girls simply didn't have skills yet.
Maybe they just hadn't developed them. Over time, they should be able to comprehend them on their own.
He'd just stumbled upon giving King Halo a push, and she awakened.
"Only 100 meters left!"
"Wait, what's this?! King Halo is charging through like a bullet!"
"King Halo was already closing in on Grass Wonder. Just one length... half a length..."
"She's already caught up to Grass Wonder!"
"She's so fast! Incredibly fast!"
"Can Grass Wonder hold her off?!"
"Halo-chan?!" When King Halo blazed past her, even Grass Wonder couldn't believe what just happened.
She tried to squeeze out more speed, but the finish line was right there. Her legs were screaming. This was her absolute limit.
"King Halo takes the lead! She's actually taken the lead!!!"
Woooohoooo!!!
The venue absolutely exploded. The roar of the crowd was deafening.
"They're crossing the line! King Halo wins by half a length! She's done it! King Halo has won!"
"Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable! No one saw this coming! The winner is King Halo!"
"Second place goes to Grass Wonder! Third place is Sakura Laurel..."
King Halo couldn't process what just happened, even after crossing the finish line. When she finally stopped running, she stared up at the rankings displayed on the screen.
First place. Number 7. That was her number.
"I... won?"
"Hahahaha!" She threw her head back and laughed like a true victor.
This was her first real victory. Her first time winning in front of everyone.
Beating so many talented horse girls felt absolutely incredible.
In all the tryouts before this, she'd never won once. Always second. Always third.
She'd lost to Seiun Sky. Lost to Grass Wonder. Lost to...
Pretty much every horse girl in this race had beaten King Halo at some point.
You needed to win a tryout and get nominated just to enter the debut race, but she'd never managed it before.
"Oh ho ho ho! Didn't expect this, did you, old woman?! I won! I actually won!"
"Want me to drop out? Dream on!"
Riding high on her victory, King Halo shot a glance toward the spectator stands, right at that rookie's trainer standing next to Seiun Sky. Then she quickly looked away.
She turned to the exhausted Grass Wonder, then to Silence Suzuka, who'd just stumbled across the line in eighth place. "See that? This is what a real first-rate horse girl looks like!"
Grass Wonder let out a long sigh. "I lost, huh..."
But then she lifted her head and smiled at King Halo as if nothing bothered her. "Halo-chan is really amazing."
"Oh ho ho ho! And I'm not giving you the win next time either!"
Grass Wonder kept smiling, but inside her heart was heavy.
Watching victory slip through her fingers when it was so close... nobody could feel good about that.
King Halo's final burst was just too sudden. Too overwhelming.
Grass Wonder had to admit it. Against King Halo moving at that speed, she never stood a chance.
And waiting until the final 200 meters to accelerate? For horse girls, that's barely a dozen seconds. By the time you realize what's happening, it's already too late to respond.
---
Warm Reminder: Because King Halo is not the host's dedicated horse girl, task reward collection failed. Please sign a contract as soon as possible. Task expires in 4 hours.
Hayato stared at the system notification, torn between excitement and frustration.
12 attribute points!
Training hard for several days straight only gave 12 points. Letting this slip away would be a complete waste.
He'd try his best. If it didn't work, well, it didn't work.
Who told that tsundere ojou-sama to have such ridiculously high standards anyway?
At least now he understood how things worked. As long as they were his contracted horse girls, winning races gave rewards from the system.
While Hayato was still processing all this, Seiun Sky had already disappeared.
"Huh? Where did Seiun go?" He looked around frantically, but she was nowhere to be found. "She just took off?! Damn it!"
While searching for Seiun Sky, he happened to look up and spot a woman in a white dress and sun hat.
That woman had been watching King Halo intently. After a few moments, she turned and left.
"Could that be King's mom?"
He'd never seen her before, but something told him she had to be connected to King Halo somehow.
Then his eyes landed on Tojo Hana and the dignified figure standing beside her with arms crossed. Symboli Rudolf. The Emperor herself.
The moment he looked her way, Symboli Rudolf's gaze locked onto Hayato. That overwhelming, majestic stare made his blood freeze.
The presence of someone truly strong was on a completely different level.
Like staring down a predator.
He'd wanted to check her stats out of curiosity, but a notification immediately popped up.
Intelligence attribute determination failed. Cannot view.
Warm Reminder: Intelligence must be greater than 60% of the opponent's intelligence to view attributes, greater than 80% to view aptitudes, and greater than 100% to view skills.
"Rudolf, what's wrong?" Tojo Hana picked up on something, sensing the shift in atmosphere.
Rudolf Symbol spoke calmly. "An interesting guy just appeared."
"Interesting?" Tojo Hana sounded genuinely surprised. "Coming from you, Rudolf, that's incredibly high praise. Are you certain?"
"Yeah." Symboli Rudolf finally broke eye contact with Hayato. "You heard about the tryouts a few days ago, right? There's a new trainer who apparently knew the outcome of a race before it even started."
"You mean..."
"If I'm not wrong, he predicted this race too. He might have even orchestrated the whole thing. That's the only explanation for such an unexpected result from this race."
Ask anyone who watched this race who they thought would win, and every single person would've said Grass Wonder or Silence Suzuka. Even if neither of them won, it definitely wouldn't have been King Halo's turn.
But reality proved the exact opposite. Making you wonder if something unexpected had interfered.