At Tracen Academy, inside the Student Council President's office, Symboli Rudolf sat at her desk, seriously working through the academy's paperwork.
On her desk were two stacks of files taller than her head.
One stack was unfinished paperwork.
The other stack was also unfinished paperwork.
Even for someone as experienced at office work as Rudolf, seeing two towering piles of documents first thing in the morning was enough to give her a headache.
Normally it would not be so bad if her right-hand woman, Air Groove, were here to help shoulder some of the burden. But Air Groove seemed to have taken the day off, so all of the work had fallen on Rudolf alone.
On the surface, Tracen Academy looked peaceful.
In reality, it was drowning in trouble.
Male trainers vanishing together with their assigned horse girls for no apparent reason, veteran trainers resigning or filing protection requests, food shortages in the cafeteria, broken training equipment, turf maintenance for the track, budget problems within the academy, and more.
Rudolf had even stayed up late working the night before to deal with everything as quickly as possible, but when she came back this morning, not only had the files not decreased, they had somehow multiplied. And she still had her own studying and training to do. Faced with that mountain of responsibilities, even Rudolf felt stretched thin.
To make matters worse, the selection race had been held that morning. The new trainers who had taken on horse girls would all be coming to register with her soon, which meant things were only going to get busier.
"So there was another horse-girl bus assault?"
Looking at the report in her hand describing how the first shuttle carrying the male trainers back to the dorms had been intercepted the previous night, Rudolf could not help giving a wry smile.
Rudolf's own trainer was an intelligent, cool-headed woman, so she truly did not understand why all these hopelessly love-struck girls were so obsessed with pouncing on their male trainers every single day. In her opinion, if they redirected all that energy into training and study, at least half of Tracen's problems would disappear.
Rubbing her temples, Rudolf forced herself back into work.
Then came a knock at the door.
"Come in."
The wooden door opened, and a petite pink-haired horse girl trotted in excitedly.
"Good morning, President!"
The moment Rudolf saw Urara's smile, the fatigue in her heart lightened at once.
"Hello. What can I do for you?" Rudolf asked politely, smiling back.
"We're here to register!"
"Register? You mean to register your trainer partnership information?"
Rudolf had already seen the list of horse girls participating in that morning's selection race, so she recognized Urara. The moment Urara mentioned registration, Rudolf immediately understood her purpose.
"You're Haru Urara, correct?"
"That's right!"
Rudolf pulled two forms from a drawer and handed them to Urara.
"Please fill these out first, and I'll take care of the rest... Wait a moment, Urara. Where is your trainer?"
Rudolf looked left and right, but only saw Urara come in alone.
"Urara, trainer-partnership registration requires both you and your trainer to be present."
A trainer partnership was an extremely important matter. Both trainer and horse girl had to come together, fill out the forms in Rudolf's presence, and then swear that no matter what hardships they faced, they would never abandon one another and would remain of one heart and one mind.
For horse girls, it was more or less the equivalent of getting married.
"Huh? My trainer is already here."
"Waiting outside? Then please have them come in. These two forms only become valid if they're filled out in front of me—"
"My trainer is right here."
Urara pointed at the empty space beside her.
Rudolf blinked in confusion.
Right here?
Was this some new kind of cold joke?
As the undisputed queen of bad puns, Rudolf tried very hard to decipher what Urara meant, but no matter how she looked at it, she could not find the joke.
Then suddenly, Rudolf froze.
In the patch of empty space Urara was pointing at, a figure in black slowly came into view.
There really was someone there.
She simply had not noticed them at all until now.
She had never seen this person before, so they were probably one of the new trainers who had joined yesterday.
Rudolf rubbed her eyes. "My apologies. I may have failed to notice this trainer because I'm a little tired."
Tang Han looked at the faint dark circles beneath Rudolf's eyes and her exhausted expression, then waved his hand dismissively.
"No, it's my fault. This outfit lowers my presence. It's perfectly normal that you didn't notice me just now."
"I see."
Rudolf studied Tang Han's Doctor's Outfit, then nodded in acceptance.
"If other trainers wore clothes that lowered their presence the way yours does, they might not go missing so easily... Ah, I said something strange. Please forget it."
Tang Han: "..."
He had definitely heard that line somewhere before.
"Please fill these forms out first, both of you."
"Alright."
Tang Han and Urara took the papers.
The content was simple enough: name, gender, birthday, dreams, contact information, plus a number of explanations regarding responsibility. The trainer would be responsible for creating the horse girl's training plan, entering her in races, dividing prize money, and so on. If both parties agreed, they simply had to sign.
Tang Han thought for a moment, then signed immediately. In the "Dream" section, he wrote:
Win the Arima Kinen.
Well, it was just a dream. You might as well write something big. It was not like it would cost him anything.
Tang Han then sneaked a glance at Urara's form.
Under dreams, she had written:
Run happily
Eat ice cream every day
Get first place in my next race
Yes.
That felt very much like her.
After they handed the completed forms to Rudolf, she checked them carefully, then put them away. Once she had confirmed everything was in order, she looked at the two of them with a solemn expression.
"Next, it falls to me to judge whether the two of you are truly sincere about building this partnership."
Rudolf rose from her chair and stepped between Tang Han and Urara.
"Haru Urara, do you wish to become Trainer Tang Han's assigned horse girl? To love him, to be loyal to him, in poverty, sickness, or disability, until death. Do you?"
"I do!"
Pure little angel Urara answered instantly.
"Trainer Tang Han, do you wish to become Haru Urara's trainer? To love her, to be loyal to her, in poverty, sickness, or disability, until death. Do you?"
Tang Han: "...Huh?"
No, wait.
Wasn't this a little strange?
Wasn't that basically the vow used in wedding ceremonies?
Using it for a trainer-horse girl partnership oath felt a bit too weird, did it not?
"Trainer Tang Han, did you not hear clearly? I can repeat it—"
"No need!"
Tang Han hurriedly stopped her.
"I just want to ask, President Rudolf... Is this really how you always conduct trainer-horse girl partnership oaths?"
"Yes, it is. This tradition has been passed down ever since Tracen Academy was founded. Is there a problem?"
"...Uh... no problem..."
Tang Han broke into a cold sweat.
Apparently Rudolf had absolutely no idea how serious this was. Honestly, the fact that horse girls at this academy were constantly thinking about pouncing on their trainers probably owed something to her.
"Then, Trainer Tang Han," Rudolf said, "what is your answer?"
Join here to read ahead.
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