Time passed.
While Kitahara was wondering why the name "Kitahara-gumi" sounded somehow wrong...
A storm was gradually brewing elsewhere.
And once again, it started with him.
As mentioned before, Kitahara had begun going all out in training the Umamusume under his care.
There was nothing wrong with the training itself.
The problem was, you did not train them just to keep them cooped up at home. You trained them to enter races, right?
And once they began racing, things quickly spiraled out of control.
Even before Kitahara started training them at full intensity, his Umamusume had never lost outside of races against one another.
But at least back then, their victories had still fallen within comprehensible bounds. There had still been some possibility of surpassing them.
Now, however...
One length. Two lengths. Three lengths...
One win by a huge margin. Then another. Then a third...
Not every Umamusume was good at acting, and power that grew so rapidly was difficult to control.
On top of that, if they held back carelessly, they might hurt themselves over something pointless. Even if they wanted to restrain themselves, they could not.
And so, any Umamusume race in Japan that involved Kitahara could now basically be summarized in three steps.
Kitahara arrived with his Umamusume.
Kitahara won with his Umamusume.
Kitahara left with his Umamusume.
He came from Tracen.
And won, and won again.
The difference had already grown beyond anything the word "gap" could describe.
Every one of them possessed off-the-charts horsepower and a fully unleashed Domain.
Their bodies remained in peak condition at all times, while their awareness and reactions pushed right up against recorded limits.
If they had been scattered throughout history, each of them would have been either a legendary Umamusume or a legendary phantom racehorse, every one of them capable of contending for an undefeated Triple Crown.
But now, not only had they all appeared in the same era, they were lined up together.
But was that truly their own strength?
Certainly, every Umamusume capable of entering Tracen Main Campus was elite, and the Umamusume under Kitahara were the elite among elites.
But Tracen produced talented Umamusume every year.
This world had never lacked geniuses. Yet this was the first time such a spectacle had ever occurred.
The answer was obvious.
Kitahara.
The true monster hidden behind that group of monstrous girls.
He did not even need to do anything. His mere presence was enough to inspire despair.
After all, no matter how legendary an Umamusume might be, she would only race in the Twinkle Series for three years.
A legendary Trainer, however, could continue teaching until retirement.
As long as Kitahara remained a Trainer, every other Trainer could do nothing but look up at him.
There was no future in sight.
No hope, either.
And it was not only the Trainers. The Umamusume felt the same.
In fact, compared to the Trainers, the Umamusume who actually competed against them on the racetrack suffered an even greater shock.
It was not that they lacked talent.
It was not that they had failed to work hard.
Their opponents had simply transcended common sense. They existed on an entirely different level.
Darkness descended. Despair spread.
Then a white Umamusume stepped forth from the darkness, spreading love and hope.
She could not change the fact that they were unable to win, but she could point them toward a new direction.
Yes.
Shanish.
Although fanning the flames was one of her hobbies, as one of the goddesses, she naturally understood that going too far would damage the existing Tracen and Umamusume system, creating serious dangers and risks.
Yet she continued fanning those flames, and even the Three Goddesses barely tried to stop her.
This was why.
After all, as everyone knew, Umamusume possessed two great desires.
One of those desires was now under threat, heavily suppressed, and even distorted.
To prevent anything from going wrong at this critical stage of the ongoing change, that pressure could only be released through the other.
As for the Trainers?
What did they think Tracen paid them such high salaries for?
If the Three Goddesses had not been relatively kindhearted and still cared somewhat about appearances, then in the setting next door, there would have been nothing strange about renaming the Trainer profession "Investigator."
Here, they could still earn their salaries while keeping their lives. The worst outcome was merely being beaten to their knees, dragged away, and made into slaves.
That was already extremely gentle treatment.
What more could they ask for?
Still, allowing this situation to continue indefinitely would not be good.
It was not only the rate at which Trainers were disappearing. It would also discourage future generations of Umamusume and Trainers.
So word was deliberately leaked to the public that Kitahara would only remain a Trainer for three years, and that once this group of Umamusume graduated, he would leave the academy.
It was perfectly reasonable, and no one questioned it.
After all, everyone could see the precedent of a Trainer with seventeen Tantou—seventeen assigned Umamusume.
People had even started private betting pools over how many pieces he would be divided into after graduation.
Naturally, it was impossible for the other Umamusume families not to have designs on a Trainer as absurdly exceptional as Kitahara.
But a glance around Kitahara revealed...
Rudolf and Sirius of the Symboli family, Ardan of the Mejiro family, Diamond of the Satono family, Kitasan Black of the Kitasan family, and so on...
With those Umamusume and the families behind them watching like hawks, the other families had no way to make a move.
In a sense, they were indirectly preventing one another from acting.
And Kitahara knew about this.
For one thing, he had fairly frequent dealings with Rudolf.
Especially after Tokai Teio made her decision, he spent even more time interacting and communicating with Rudolf.
The two would often stand together at the training grounds, watching Tokai Teio run while exchanging their experiences in looking after her.
Tokai Teio could, of course, see the two of them interacting.
But she felt no resentment at all.
After overcoming that hurdle in her heart, Tokai Teio had truly changed a great deal.
Her possessiveness was no longer as intense, and she had gained a deeper understanding of Rudolf's difficulties and courage.
Before, she had only thought Rudolf was strong and outstanding, like a hero working for the happiness of all Umamusume.
—Humans were excluded because the Three Goddesses forbade Umamusume from interfering in human affairs.
But only after making her own decision did Teio realize how much courage and responsibility that required.
She also came to understand the hopes Rudolf had once placed on her, and why she had always demanded so much from her.
They both loved her.
And she wanted to be with both of them.
It was that simple.
Tokai Teio had come to terms with it, but Kitahara still had a headache.
He was grateful that Rudolf had helped prevent other Umamusume families from making a move on him.
The problem was that she had done so by relying on their previous excuse that the two of them were pretending to be lovers...
By now, aside from those who knew the truth, almost everyone in the academy took it for granted that he and Rudolf were involved.
Some even believed he was involved with Hayakawa-san as well.
Kitahara himself did not particularly care. He had already mare-jumped with several Umamusume, so if people called him a scumbag, he would accept it.
But those two were women. If rumors like that spread, it would not be good for their reputations...
After hearing Kitahara's concern, Rudolf blinked.
"If that is what you believe, Trainer Kitahara, then why don't we simply start dating for real?"
Kitahara: "...Huh?"
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