I spent most of the day inside Stay Gold's manor. It was kinda surprising, but during this time, things went fairly normal. Yes, each one of them is quirky, but their family is verily functional, they care about each other, but they give each other enough room to have their own interests. Goldshi's room was full of all kinds of things: posters about UFOs, investigations about crimes, some meme stuff, and a big library about all sorts of random trivia books.
I don't know what Fenomeno did during the day, but at a simple peek at her room, it was neat and clean, she looked like a fairly normal person, and I couldn't see the other daughters' rooms. But Orfevre spent most of the afternoon in the family's personal gym hanging with her friend. When we passed that place, they were talking about their races, but not bragging about them, more like studying what went wrong and what they did right. Both Orfevre and Gentildonna looked very focused on their careers.
As a surprise, I met Goldshi's father, who was parking the car. He was a very serious man, but he smiled slightly when I was introduced and welcomed me, not as boldly as Stay Gold, but they spent most of the afternoon watching old western movies in the living room. It was fairly normal... for some reason I thought everything would revolve around races, but it was like a family, each one doing their daily lives.
As for me and Goldshi, we ended up playing all sorts of retro video games in her room. There was a game about an alien Uma Musume from Outer Space that wanted to conquer Earth, and you had to defeat it with a plane. Casually, she commented that Nakayama Festa was busy with some street racing, and her other sister, Dream Journey, said some uninteresting mumbo jumbo and disappeared one week ago.
As for me, today was strangely relaxing; we even got snacks at some point and finished reading a magazine about random stuff. It was about mechanical buildings of gigs, I didn't know Goldshi was interested in this kind of stuff, and it seems she wasn't aware too... and after a couple of hours, Orfevre called out at the door saying the dinner is ready.
At the table, I noticed that on the walls of the hall, there were many pictures of the family, some of their vacations, but there were also pictures of their major wins. The dinner itself was abundant, and kinda expensive, I didn't think it would be like this.
"I'm going to make an announcement!" Goldshi suddenly burst, raising both of her hands.
"Huh? This is getting interesting," Said Orfevre, who was pinching her lobster with the fork.
"Haaa... Gold Ship" Stay Gold sighed, not even looking at her, she was toying with her food. "I knew you would never give me grandsons, but I can say you are too young to marry..."
"Wha!? That's not it!" Gold Ship for a moment.
"Darling, please don't toy with the food," Stay Gold husband said while looking at a newspaper.
Fenomeno, on the other corner of the table, frowned.
"And here we go again..." She seemed slightly annoyed already.
"I'm retiring from rising!!" Gold Ship said, raising both of her hands to the sky.
"Oh, I see..." That was the reaction of Stay Gold, who munched on her lobster.
For a whole moment, none said anything else. I was so confused... why would sister Goldshi retire if she is just entering her peak!? Was it supposed to be like this!? For a moment, Orfevre had a serious and mysterious expression on her face while holding a trembling fork... until the fork snapped in her hand.
"What do you mean by that, Goldshi!?" Some tears had formed in Orfevre's eyes, at her side, Gentildonna just sighed.
"You see... I have worked too hard... and won too much. That's enough! I don't get paid enough!" Said Gold Ship, celebrating her own decision.
Then Fenomeno fork's also snapped.
"God damn it, Gold Ship, you haven't worked hard a single day of your entire life!" She barked clearly, very annoyed now, "While the rest of us work hard... you... you...!"
"Fenomeno, don't break the forks!" Said Stay Gold.
Fenomeno looked at her mother, baffled.
"Orfevre broke one too, and you didn't say anything to her!"
"What fork?" Orfevre said, hiding the snapped fork under a tissue, still holding back the tears.
"See... you made your sister cry..." Stay Gold shook her head and extended a hand to her husband. He gave her a notebook, and she opened it. "Let's see Gold Ship," She began to read a report. "Huh? You already won 3 G1s?"
"Hehe~ I'm so amazing~ The family should be so grateful to me~" Said Goldshi while placing a finger under her nose as if receiving a prize.
"He... pathetic..." Stay Gold said.
The word hung in the air.
"Huh?" Gold Ship opened her mouth, but the sound came out from my lips.
"I was expecting so much more from the great Goldshi... but you know... You can't choose family, do as you wish, or do you need help from us to fill out the resignation letter?"
"I was just jocking... hahaha... yeah that's right..."
"Fenomeno told me about it... You have been slacking more than usual..." Under the table, she picked up an enormous amount of papers; it was a big stack. She placed it on the table, and it sounded just by the weight of those "You see... these are the complaints that have arrived... this month..." She tapped the papers with her finger and then said a number, "Twelve..."
"Oh, I feel like training now! Meek, let's go!!"
"Ooooh, Goldshi is back to training! Let's go as well, Gentildonna!" Orfevre was all fired up now; she looked now regal as a double-crowned king.
"Meek was it? Thanks for being friends with my silly daughter, each time she misbehaves, just tell her... her fans are waiting for the twelve..."
"Mom, I love you! Bye Bye!"
The dinner was tasty, but we sprinted out of the house. The four of us ended up eating cheap ramen on a streetcar... soon it became really crowded by fans, after all, there was the dual winner of the triple crown and dual winner of the triple tiara, both Gentildonna and Orfevre were really popular... also Gold Ship had a crowd around her... I smiled. The three of them were amazing. Then a small kid with her parents came near me.
"You are Happy Meek?" Asked the kiddo.
"Yes, yes, I am," I said with a gentle smile.
"I saw you on TV... thank you... for what you did"
I was taken aback by that. I wasn't expecting something like this.
"Thank you, Miss Meek, we will be cheering for you!" Said her mother too.
It was a brief moment; there weren't many, but some among the people recognized me, and knowing there was a kiddo cheering for me, I felt a little better, even if I couldn't run the next race I had planned.
After some strange moments, that improvised fan meeting with their star uma musume, we came back to Tracen, only to find Tazuna glaring at us...
Yes, we had to write an apology letter for being outside late and alone, and we all served detention for an entire week.