Dyna spent the entire day in the hospital.
When she left that evening, she was still holding the freshly printed examination report in her hand. It showed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her body, as though that asthma attack in the car had been something she had faked on purpose.
"Even though the whole day got turned upside down, it's still good that you're completely healthy, Boss… You really scared me half to death back there…" Oguri Cap kept muttering the same few lines under her breath beside her, making it obvious just how badly she had been frightened.
Holding the papers up against the golden light of the setting sun, Dyna shook her head.
What she still found hardest to believe was that even sleeping during the day could drag her into that uncontrollable place. Even someone as strong as Sea the Stars had been unable to stay there for long. It really had felt like a prison built specifically for Dyna—only its information had been outdated, so it had failed at the last step. Thinking back on it now, all Dyna felt from it was a deep, suffocating malice.
Good thing she was strong enough.
"You're hungry, right? Let's go get dinner. Since Changying is handling things at the new branch, I feel pretty relaxed about it. Let's stay here for the night. We lost a whole day, but if we hurry, we should still be able to make the grand opening during Golden Week." Dyna brushed her own troubles aside in a single sentence. Since they had come out here to deal with the shop, she intended to keep her focus on that.
It was already late, so Dyna decided to get some food into herself first, then take Oguri to find a hotel for the night. In the morning, they could take a taxi to where Changying was.
At the Golden Household — at the same time
Karuin had come to the "mafia's" territory for the first time.
The "Golden Mafia" was only what people jokingly called them, but after seeing the place with her own eyes, it really did start to feel like the name might be true. Even the household servants wore black suits, and even the cars used for travel were pitch black. While she was still taking in the reception, she nearly jumped out of her skin when a horse-girl maid suddenly emerged from the shadows.
"Miss Karuin, please allow me to take your luggage."
That was all the maid said. She hadn't even finished the sentence before she had already taken the two suitcases from Karuin's hands and started leading her to the room Gold Ship's elder sister had prepared.
Trainer Ikegoe and Whale Journey, who had come with Karuin, had been escorted off to their own rooms just as quickly by other attendants. That left Ikegoe standing alone in the entrance hall with only a shoulder bag. Looking up at the extravagant main estate of this old horse-girl clan, he couldn't help thinking that this was by far the flashiest family he had ever seen.
The Mejiro family and the Sakura family had both seemed downright restrained compared to the Goldens.
"Trainer Ikegoe, welcome to the Golden residence. My younger sister was tied up with a few things just now, so I apologize for the delay." Gold Journey was dressed in a plain white T-shirt and a pair of faded light-blue jeans. The outfit made her look a little taller than usual—at least at first glance.
Ikegoe reached out and shook her hand. "No problem. As long as it helps Orfevre, I don't mind what I'm asked to do. I'm guessing that's why I was invited here in the first place?"
With only a little thought, it was obvious enough. If a racing family invited a trainer to stay at their estate for a while, the reason could only be one thing.
After all, one of the horse girls under his care belonged to this family.
Gold Journey smiled faintly and extended an arm toward the reception room. "Let's talk there. None of my sisters are using it right now. Think of this as something I, as Orfevre's older sister, want to tell you—her trainer."
Inside, the décor matched the exterior in richness. The moment Ikegoe stepped in, he caught a strong, elegant fragrance in the air. He glanced around but didn't see anything like flower arrangements, which meant it had to be incense or some kind of perfume burner. He had only ever seen things like this in old novels before. He hadn't expected the Golden household to really use such seemingly expensive luxuries.
"Please, sit." Gold Journey poured tea for him from a kettle already warming over a brazier. "You can probably guess why we asked you here. Our efforts at helping Orfevre adjust haven't worked at all. I'm not boasting when I say she really does have the ability to win a G1. But right now, she's been affected by the same opponent again and again."
Once Ikegoe sat down, Gold Journey slid a cup of tea across to him and began explaining Orfevre's current state.
Ever since the Satsuki Sho, Orfevre had outwardly returned to normal under her family's intervention—but only in her everyday life. The moment she stepped onto a racecourse, she began saying that there was always a chestnut horse girl with red mixed into her mane standing in front of her: a presence she could never overtake, something that stirred disgust and resistance in her every time she tried to compete.
And yet, after examining her, the family doctor had declared that Orfevre's mind was perfectly normal. There was no sign of hallucinations brought on by stress or mental exhaustion.
Gold Journey had been in racing long enough to know better.
This was something else.
A rare kind of aftereffect left behind by exposure to another horse girl's field.
Which meant that in the Satsuki Sho, Glittering Dyna really had used one.
"A field, huh…" Ikegoe said after a sip of tea. "To a trainer, that kind of thing feels even more intangible and bizarre than it does to the horse girls themselves."
In all his years, he had only heard about "fields" and "presence" second-hand during annual lectures given by legendary racers. He had never expected to actually run into a horse girl who possessed them.
Gold Journey smiled ruefully. "To be honest, when I raced in Hong Kong, I brushed against that world myself for a few hundred meters. That was all. But the sensation of stepping into it was unforgettable. In the final stretch, your chest and lungs stop hurting. Your legs become light enough to feel like you could outrun any sports car on earth."
"That's how I won my only G1 in Hong Kong. But after that, I never touched that state again. Even so, as someone who's brushed against that side of racing, I can still sense it. There's no doubt that Glittering Dyna stepped into a field during the Satsuki Sho. And in all probability, she's the first horse girl in history to do so that early."
There was something very specific in the way Gold Journey said it.
Emperor Rudolf had once said that only horse girls who created miracles—who forged the legend of an entire generation—could master a complete field.
The scale of that future legend determined how early the field would awaken in them.
And one more thing mattered just as much: the racer's own hunger to win.
In Gold Journey's eyes, Dyna possessed all of it.
That was why she had created the legend of a field awakening in the Satsuki Sho itself.
Ikegoe drained his tea. Gold Journey immediately refilled his cup, but this time he only held it in his hands without drinking.
"I'll reserve judgment on fields and presence for now," he said. "But the important thing is getting Orfevre to truly run again, isn't it?"
Maybe he did need time to understand these things. But before any of that, what mattered most to him was Orfevre herself.
He needed to see her.
"Let me meet her first. I need to understand what state she's in right now."
Gold Journey set down the teapot and instructed a maid to clear the cups before leading Ikegoe out.
"She's shut herself in her room today and doesn't really want to see any of us," Gold Journey said as they walked. "So all I can do is bring you to her door. Whether she'll actually meet you… depends on her mood."
Gold Journey stopped outside Orfevre's room. A young horse girl stood nearby—a child Ikegoe had never once seen in the racing papers.
"Little Ren, why don't you go play with Gold Ship for a bit? This is your Sister Orfevre's trainer. They need to talk," Gold Journey said, ruffling the child's hair.
The little girl tilted her head and glanced at Ikegoe, then silently hugged her stuffed toy and headed downstairs.
Watching her go, Gold Journey explained, "That's Sazanka. Orfevre brought her home from an orphanage. She's one of the Goldens now. Right now I'm trying to decide which elementary school to send her to."
"So that's it…" Ikegoe murmured. "She's a cute kid."
Children with white facial markings weren't rare among horse girls, but one with a streak bent as strangely as Sazanka's? That was memorable enough to stick in his mind.
"This is her room." Gold Journey nodded toward the door. "The rest is up to you."
She didn't head downstairs afterward, though. Instead, she sat down in the small upstairs sitting room nearby.
Ikegoe stood in front of the door and knocked three times.
No answer.
He planted one hand on his hip and knocked three more times.
This time he heard the slap-drag of slippers against the floor from inside. Before he could knock a third time, the door opened.
Orfevre had clearly assumed it was one of her sisters. The moment she saw Ikegoe standing there, his hand still raised, she nearly slammed the door shut in his face hard enough to break his nose. The gust even ruffled his hair.
For a second, Ikegoe just stared.
Behind the door, Orfevre frantically ran a hand through her hair.
She hadn't been expecting Ikegoe at all. She was still in crumpled pajamas, looking more like an orange-haired ghost than anything else. The instant she realized who it was, she knew this had to be her sister Journey's doing.
Still, she pulled herself together quickly, smoothed her hair twice, and opened the door again with a stiff, cold expression.
"Trainer?"
The expression didn't match the wrinkled sleepwear or the slippers dragging on the floor at all, and Ikegoe nearly laughed.
"We'll be staying here until the Derby," he said.
"…Okay."
She answered curtly, but the fact that Journey had done something like this wasn't especially surprising.
Then Ikegoe added, "Karuin and Whale Journey are here too. We're all going to watch the Oaks together."
"…They're here too?"
That gave her pause, but not much more than that.
Maybe because it felt awkward to keep standing in the doorway, Orfevre finally let him inside. The room was untidy, but not dirty enough to be unbearable.
From around the corner upstairs, Gold Journey poked her head out. The moment she saw the door close behind Ikegoe, she knew it had worked. After all, when she tried coming here, Orfevre never let her even glance inside.
She sighed with relief. "Honestly, it seems like Tra-na is even more important than family."
Before heading downstairs, that was the last thing she said to herself.
Then she spotted Sazanka hiding at the corner and spying on the whole scene. Journey nearly jumped, then hurried over and scooped her up before carrying her away.
"Big Sis Journey, can Tra-na really go into Big Sis Orfe's room?" Sazanka asked, copying the way Journey had called him "Tra-na."
Journey laughed weakly. "Trainer Ikegoe is going to help your Big Sis Orfevre win races, okay? Don't worry."
"Oh…" Sazanka nodded solemnly. "So if a trainer goes into a horse girl's room, then she can win races. Amazing."
"That's not what it means at all—!" Journey protested, but Sazanka was already lost in her own imagination. "When you start school at Tracen later, you'll understand! For now, your job is just to study hard!"
Even so, nobody could guess what strange conclusions the child had drawn from any of that.
As for what happened inside the room—
Ikegoe ultimately got kicked out.
Judging by the force of it, though, Orfevre had at least gotten some of her spirit back.
"Ow…! When I told you to put your strength into it, I didn't mean this kind of strength!"
Half of Ikegoe's body was hanging over the upstairs railing. If Orfevre had put just a little more into it, he might have gone all the way down to the first floor.
Sure, trainers did some physical conditioning too—but Ikegoe had no illusions that a normal human body could survive being drop-kicked by a horse girl and then just get up like nothing had happened.
Inside the doorway, orange hair blazing and violet eyes crackling with the same violent aura Orfevre had had back in her debut race, she shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. I used strength, didn't I?"
Ikegoe blinked.
That was… not how it was supposed to go.
"Then how do you feel now?" he asked, climbing back upright while rubbing the spot where she'd almost sent him flying.
Orfevre tilted her head, staring at him.
Then she answered plainly:
"I kind of want to kick you a few more times."
Ikegoe froze again.
By all logic, she should have been saying she wanted to go running laps around the training track or something.
This… was not the response he had been expecting.
Still, the fact remained that she'd kicked him like that at all.
Normally when Orfevre kicked Ikegoe, it was playful.
This time, it definitely hadn't been.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 138)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter160)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter98)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter175)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 163
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 150
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 100
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 170
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 145
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 125
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 69
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 90
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 100
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 70
Uma Musume: I Want All 90
I Can Copy Unique Skills 65
Summoning an Evil God, but the 52
Supernatural Multiverse 65
My Harem Is Indescribable 55
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 55
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 66
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 55
Still playing traditional Honk 35
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 35
What Should I Do After Switchi 24
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 35
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 27
Transmigrated as Sukuna 27
Checking In in Demon Slayer 32
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 44
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