A few minutes later, with Urara and the others striking their final pose—one hand pointing toward the sky—the dance performance came to a smooth end.
"Woooooo—!"
The audience burst into thunderous cheers.
"That was amazing!"
"I want to see it again!"
"Thank you, everyone~" Urara and the others waved enthusiastically to the crowd, then left the Winners' Stage.
"That was really good."
The spectators were thoroughly satisfied. Even after the performance ended, many lingered, chatting excitedly about how adorable the three girls had been.
"Urara…" King Halo watched Urara's retreating figure with tears shimmering in her eyes.
She had been snapping photos of Urara the whole time, taking several shots of every single pose. By now, her album was practically full.
"Oh no—I forgot to record video!" King Halo suddenly realized that she had been so focused on taking pictures that she had forgotten to film Urara's dancing.
"No need to worry. I recorded it already." Tang Han held up his phone.
There was no way he would let Little Angel Urara's first-ever stage performance pass by without filming it.
Not only that—once he got back, he planned to make several copies and save them in different places, just to make sure nothing happened to the footage.
Someday, when Urara watched her own debut Winners' Stage again, she was sure to be overcome with emotion.
This, in Tang Han's view, was part of a trainer's duty.
"Remember to send it to me!" King Halo said at once.
Then, after a moment's thought, she realized that she still had not added Tang Han as a friend.
After all, the friend slots of a first-rate Queen could not just be handed out to anyone. Only people she personally acknowledged were worthy of them.
But if she did not add him, how was Tang Han supposed to send her the video?
So King Halo thrust her phone in front of him and said proudly,
"You should be grateful. Very few are allowed to add a first-rate Queen as a friend. Ohohohohoho—!"
By now, King Halo had made up her mind: Tang Han was worthy of becoming the first-rate trainer of a first-rate King like her.
Of course, if they were ever going to form a trainer-horse-girl partnership, she absolutely could not be the one to bring it up. Naturally, Tang Han would have to ask first.
Still, handing over her friend slot now already meant that the two of them could message each other from now on—and more importantly, that Tang Han now had the means to spam her with invitations to join his team.
With a genius of her caliber, surely Tang Han had been eyeing her for quite some time already. He would probably ask her tonight.
When that happened, she would act a little reserved first, then lay down a few conditions. For example: he had to massage her feet after every training session, spend every weekend shopping with her for first-rate clothes, and praise her every day for how exceptional she was…
And only then would she agree.
"Ohohohohoho—!" King Halo laughed again, full of confidence, her tail swishing happily. "Tang Han, I'll be looking forward to your performance tonight~"
"Sure," Tang Han replied calmly, taking her phone.
King Halo often burst into weirdly self-assured laughter for no obvious reason, so by now Tang Han was used to it and barely reacted.
By "performance tonight," she just meant sending her the video, right? What else could it mean?
Surely she was not inviting him to do horse-jumping or something…
"Yee—" Even though he knew that was impossible, Tang Han still shivered.
That settled it. Tonight, he would send her the video and not exchange a single extra word.
"Let's go find Urara and Meek," Tang Han suggested.
Urara and Happy Meek had just finished their performance and should still be backstage resting.
Ordinary people were not allowed backstage, but the trainers and teammates of the performing girls were exceptions, so Tang Han planned to go pick them up.
"Mm." Everyone nodded.
Together, they headed toward the backstage entrance.
At the entrance passageway, a staff member stopped them.
"Unauthorized personnel aren't allowed in. Please show your identification."
"My name is Aoi Kiryuin. I'm Happy Meek's trainer."
"Tang Han. Haru Urara's trainer."
Aoi and Tang Han handed over their trainer ID cards.
"Please wait a moment." The staff member took them and checked the information on a tablet.
A short while later—
"Trainer Kiryuin, you may go in."
"But Trainer Tang Han… um…" The staff member kept glancing between the tablet screen and Tang Han, looking troubled.
"Sir, you don't look like the Tang Han in the official database, so I can't let you through."
"Hm? Don't look like him?" Tang Han blinked in confusion.
Then he realized the reason.
He took off the giant yellow T-shaped headpiece he had been wearing and asked, "How about now?"
The staff member looked at his normal outfit and instantly brightened. "Yes! That matches! Very much!"
Tang Han: "…"
He finally understood. The photo he had uploaded to the academy site was his usual fully-concealed outfit. But earlier, he had been wearing that glaringly obvious yellow T-headpiece, so the staff member had not recognized him.
What kind of terrible video-game vision was that? You can't recognize someone just because they put on a hat?!
Still, this time Tang Han had actually judged the poor guy unfairly. Because of the Doctor's Coat reducing Tang Han's presence, with or without the T-headpiece, he really did look like two different beings to other people.
If Tang Han had not warned Urara and the others in advance that the guy in the T-headpiece was him, they would not have realized it either.
Well—except for Rice Shower. The coat's concealment effect had already stopped working on her long ago. She could recognize her gentle big brother at a glance.
"Trainer Tang Han, you may enter now," the staff member said.
"These girls are all on my team. They're allowed too, right?" Tang Han asked.
"Of course."
"Thanks."
And so Tang Han led the group into the backstage corridor.
After a few twists and turns, they found the dressing room.
"Urara Urara" Urara's cheerful singing was drifting out of the room.
Knock, knock.
"Come in~"
The door opened, and a pink-haired horse girl poked her head out.
"Ah—Trainer! And everyone else too" Urara lit up when she saw that it was all her friends.
At that point, she and Happy Meek had already changed out of their stage costumes and packed their things, just in time for Tang Han and the others to arrive.
Fresh Delicious, however, was nowhere in sight. She had apparently already left.
"Trainer, how was Urara's performance?" Urara looked up at him with bright, eager eyes.
"It was wonderful," Tang Han said honestly, reaching out to pat Little Angel's head.
"Hehe~" Urara rubbed happily against his hand.
"Let's head back now," Tang Han said.
He had originally wanted to throw Urara a celebration party, but it was too late in the day to go buy ingredients, and Urara was exhausted. So the celebration would have to wait until the weekend.
"Okay~"
Everyone agreed. They were tired too, and all wanted to hurry back, shower, and crawl into bed.
So they took the bus back to the gates of Tracen Academy.
Since the girls' dormitories were inside the academy grounds while Tang Han, as a male trainer, had to take the special school bus back to the hidden men's dorm, it was time for them to part ways.
"Bye-bye, Tang Han~" Urara and the others waved goodbye.
Even though they were reluctant to part, they still had to go. Otherwise, their dorm supervisors—Fuji Kiseki and Hishi Amazon—would get angry.
Well… lately those two seemed to be in pretty bad shape themselves, with no energy to enforce discipline, which had led to more and more girls staying out late to go on dates with their trainers.
"See you," Tang Han said, waving back.
Once he watched the girls leave, Tang Han sat down right on the ground, pulled out Training Tools: From Building Treadmills to Building Children's Toys, and began reading in earnest.
Now that Urara had won her debut race, it was time to move on to the next stage.
Within three months, he had to get either Urara or Rice Shower to win a G1 race.
The nearest G1 was the Sprinters Stakes—a short-distance race, very suitable for Urara.
Rice, on the other hand, still needed to debut first, and then he would have to enter her in the Satsuki Sho.
Neither path would be easy. He would need even more precise and advanced training plans. The academy's facilities were not always available when he needed them, which could interfere with Urara's and Rice's training, so he had decided that over the next few days he would build a training device himself.
This book, Training Tools: From Building Treadmills to Building Children's Toys, was perfect for that purpose. He had a little money now—enough to buy the necessary parts.
The only problem was that some of the components listed were highly specialized and unavailable on the normal market. Even if he had the money, he could not buy them.
Just as Tang Han was pondering how to get those parts, a pretty young woman dressed all in green approached from behind.
"Good evening, Tang Han~" Hayakawa Tazuna greeted him.
Ah, so Miss Tazuna was here too.
"Good evening," Tang Han replied politely.
Then—
"Huh?!" Tang Han stared at her and suddenly had a brilliant idea.
In the game, wasn't it Tazuna who ran the limited-time shop? Maybe in this world too, she had channels for acquiring special parts.
So he asked, "Miss Tazuna, I need some special components—things you can't buy on the market. Do you happen to know how to get them?"
He showed her the book's illustrations of the parts.
After taking a look, Tazuna nodded. "I know someone who can make parts like these…"
Then she seemed to think of something and smiled. "Tang Han, how about I place the order with that friend for you? The process is very fast. If we place the order today, the goods should arrive tomorrow."
Tang Han was overjoyed by her enthusiastic offer. He had not expected his problem to be solved so easily.
"That would be wonderful. Thank you so much, Miss Tazuna!"
Miss Tazuna, my superhero!
"When the goods arrive tomorrow, I'll come take you to pick them up," she said with a smile.
"All right." Tang Han nodded.
After that, Tazuna returned to the school gate and resumed standing there, making no further move.
Because she had realized that the more impatient she became, the easier it was for unforeseen complications to ruin her plans.
The last few times, that had been exactly her problem—she had rushed too much, and everything had gone wrong.
But not this time.
"Tomorrow. Tomorrow it'll definitely work," Tazuna murmured to herself, smiling as she watched Tang Han.
Tang Han noticed nothing and went back to reading.
Time passed little by little, and nothing unusual happened.
However, while waiting for the school bus, Tang Han unexpectedly spotted Fresh Delicious and her trainer nearby.
They were standing face to face, seemingly talking about something. Judging from the conversation, Tang Han guessed the trainer guy was trying to comfort her.
Curious how exactly the man intended to soothe his horse girl, Tang Han closed his book, leaned against a nearby wall, and quietly listened in.
"I'm sorry, Trainer… I couldn't fulfill our promise…" Fresh Delicious lowered her head, full of guilt.
"Freshie, you already did really well!" the man said gently, stroking her hair.
"But I didn't get first, so our date…"
"That's not how it is." He shook his head and pulled her into a hug.
"Eek!" Fresh Delicious trembled slightly in his arms.
"Freshie, rankings in a race don't matter. They're just empty titles." He rubbed her head tenderly. "What really draws me in are the determined look you wear when you train, the beauty of your form when you race, and every little smile and glance you show in daily life."
"In my heart, you'll always be number one!"
"Really?!" Fresh Delicious looked up at him, eyes shining.
Her heart was pounding wildly.
If there had been some sort of affection meter next to her, it would have been skyrocketing right now.
"Then… the date…" she asked hopefully.
"Of course we're still going!" The man smiled with bright, sunny sincerity. "A first-place Freshie deserves to be spoiled."
"Mmh…" Fresh Delicious turned bright red. Her head swam. Her rationality was already on the verge of collapse.
She realized something inside her was going strange. If this kept going, she was going to become bad.
So, with the very last sliver of reason she had left, she gave him a warning.
"Trainer… please don't say any more…"
But the guy just took it as her still blaming herself, and felt even sorrier for her.
"Freshie, are you still worried you're not strong enough? Don't worry. From now on, I'll train you until you become the number one horse girl in the entire world. And if I fail, I'll take responsibility!"
His gaze was crystal clear, his voice utterly sincere as he looked straight into her eyes.
It landed like a hammer blow on Fresh Delicious's heart.
"Mmh…" Her face flushed scarlet as she lowered her head.
Her fingers tangled together. Her stomach twisted with a strange ache. Her thighs rubbed unconsciously against each other.
"Trainer…" When she raised her head again, there were little hearts practically floating in her eyes.
"Trainer, can you come somewhere with me tonight? I want to dance with you… just the two of us~"
If one listened carefully, there was a trembling excitement in her voice.
"!" Tang Han, eavesdropping from nearby, instantly sensed danger from that shaky tone.
Dance? Are you sure that's the kind of dancing you mean?
If Tang Han himself had been in that situation, he would already have been running away at top speed.
But this guy was not Tang Han. He was innocent. He assumed she meant normal dancing, so he agreed without hesitation.
"Of course."
"Then let's go right now!"
The instant she got his approval, Fresh Delicious began panting excitedly and scooped him up around the waist.
"Sure," the poor man said with a foolish smile.
"Bro!" Tang Han wanted to stop him, but it was already too late.
Fresh Delicious was already carrying him off, bouncing away at a speed far beyond what she had shown in the race, and within moments both of them had disappeared.
The next time Tang Han saw that unfortunate soul, it was the following morning…
Tang Han had just gotten off the school bus when he saw the guy and Fresh Delicious walking in from the other side of the street.
That was not the direction of the men's dormitory.
"Good morning… Miss Tazuna…" the trainer croaked weakly as he greeted the green-clad woman at the gate.
Yesterday, he had been lively and full of spirit.
Today, his cheeks were hollow, his complexion sallow, his eyes dull with exhaustion, his legs trembling so badly that he looked as if a mild breeze could topple him.
Fresh Delicious, by contrast, was clinging affectionately to his arm, walking beside him like a sweet, devoted lover.
Her face was glowing with happiness. The hearts in her eyes somehow looked even bigger than yesterday.
"Darling We're dancing together again tonight too, okay"
Bro—!
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 147)
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 (Chapter185)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter215)
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 185
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/1
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 206
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 190
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/23
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 106
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 125
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 90
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 80
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 86
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 81
Still playing traditional Honk 65
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 65
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 59
Checking In in Demon Slayer 59
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 73
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 45
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 36
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 40
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 60
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 43
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 30
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 31
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