The next day, when Zhou Tai'an slowly woke up in bed, the memories of last night's events came flooding back.
"Tsk." He tapped his own head. "I really can't drink. As soon as I drink, I can't keep a secret."
Zhou Tai'an had no intention of continuing to discuss his family background with Kitahara and his Horse Girls. He decided that once he got to the academy, he wouldn't bring it up again.
After breakfast, Zhou Tai'an first took a train to Kasamatsu Racecourse to pick up his car, then drove it to the academy parking lot.
Then, instead of going back to his office to start writing the post-race reports from yesterday, he went directly to the office of Northan Ace's trainer. Seeing it was empty, he simply waited at the door.
…
It wasn't until after 7:50, with less than 10 minutes before the Horse Girls' classes were scheduled to start, that Zhou Tai'an finally saw Northan Ace's trainer, Ms. Kawamura Hiyori.
To his surprise, before he could speak, Kawamura Hiyori bowed. "Zhou-kun, I'm so sorry!"
This stopped Zhou Tai'an, who had been prepared to demand an explanation, in his tracks.
"I didn't know until last night that Northan Ace and the others were targeting Oguri Cap. I'm truly sorry! They've already gone to apologize to her," Kawamura Hiyori continued to explain. "Northan Ace told me she wants to teach Oguri Cap how to sing and dance, but she's afraid she'll be rejected because she bullied her before."
"Then let her teach," Zhou Tai'an replied dryly. "Uh—I'm sure Ms. Kawamura didn't know about this before. I only found out yesterday myself. It seems we as trainers really know too little about our Horse Girls' lives."
"Yes," Kawamura Hiyori agreed readily. "This is the first time I've learned that my own Horse Girl has done something like this. I'm truly ashamed."
"It's alright, it's alright." Seeing her take the blame, Zhou Tai'an felt embarrassed to press the issue further. "As long as it doesn't happen again. We as trainers really should pay more attention to the Horse Girls in our care. This isn't just your responsibility, Ms. Kawamura. I haven't done a good job either."
"Thank you, Zhou-kun," Kawamura Hiyori bowed deeply again. "I will make sure Northan Ace teaches Oguri Cap well."
Zhou Tai'an, who had originally planned to go in aggressively and demand an explanation, had received an unexpected reaction.
He walked back to his office with a conflicted expression.
Passing by Kitahara's office, Zhou Tai'an heard his friend's wails from inside and stopped, standing by the door to listen to what had happened.
"Waaaah—Tai'an-san's Horse Girl eats too much! The average person spends at most 5,000 yen at Rian, but I spent over 40,000 yesterday!"
"Serves you right for making a bet with him," another trainer laughed. "The gray-coated Horse Girl he's in charge of is the one who made the cafeteria give up and consider canceling the buffet system. And you dared to challenge her appetite, Kitahara."
"No wonder Tai'an-san told me a regular family restaurant would be fine. I even felt bad about it," Kitahara said, slumped in his seat. "I really took a big loss this time."
"What did you lose," the other trainer retorted. "Even though Fujimasa March didn't win yesterday, the cut you got was enough to cover the meal with some left over, right? There were only two races for debut-year Horse Girls yesterday. The biggest winner was Tai'an-san, and then you and Shibasaki-san. Now, whenever I think about my Horse Girl being in the same generation as Oguri Cap and Fujimasa March, I get a headache... How am I supposed to schedule her races?"
"You'll all have your chances later," Kitahara mumbled vaguely.
Outside the door, Zhou Tai'an had already started walking away.
…
Back at his desk, he picked up his pen and began to write the post-race report.
This report had to not only detail the course of the race but also point out the strengths and weaknesses his Horse Girl had displayed—the latter, of course, could be omitted.
"I remember my father's comment on Secretariat's Belmont Stakes was 'A once-in-a-lifetime run, a flawless performance'," Zhou Tai'an muttered to himself as he carefully wrote Oguri Cap's race report.
He wrote several lines about her strengths. When it came to her weaknesses, Zhou Tai'an had originally wanted to cheekily pay homage to his father, but then he remembered that this was just Oguri Cap's debut race at Kasamatsu and reined in the thought.
"Insufficient distance aptitude." In the end, that was the only problem he wrote down.
"After I submit this report, the academy will probably start guessing whether I plan to have Oguri Cap challenge the opponents at Nagoya," Zhou Tai'an chuckled to himself.
When writing Brand New Shine's race report, he also wrote a great deal of praise.
However, after finishing, Zhou Tai'an clipped Brand New Shine's retirement application as an attachment to the report.
"The higher-ups at the academy are going to have a real headache now," he thought, wanting to laugh out loud at the thought of the expression on the face of the person who would review the report and see that attachment.
In the afternoon, Zhou Tai'an met his two Horse Girls at the training track.
As soon as they met, Oguri Cap complained to him in front of her teammate, "Brand New Shine has gotten lazy after her debut race! I tried to get her to go for a morning run with me this morning, but she just kept sleeping."
"Um, Oguri, listen to me," Brand New Shine explained weakly, "Because—"
Zhou Tai'an cut her off and explained to Oguri Cap on her behalf, "Because Brand New Shine has decided to retire and stop being a Horse Girl."
"Huh?" Oguri Cap's eyes went wide. "Why?"
"Because I feel like I've reached the end of my road, and I'll just be stuck in this small world of Kasamatsu," Brand New Shine had already thought about how to explain it to her friend. "But if I switch to being Oguri's logistics support, I believe Oguri can definitely take me to places I wouldn't even dare to imagine in my dreams."
"Places I wouldn't even dare to imagine in my dreams?" Hearing Brand New Shine's words, the first thing that came to Oguri Cap's mind was Kitahara's lament at the dinner table last night—
"'It's a pity Tai'an-san isn't a Horse Girl. The grand achievement of three generations conquering the Arc de Triomphe is impossible now.'"
"That must be a place I wouldn't even dare to imagine in my dreams." She closed her eyes, unable to picture what the Arc de Triomphe should look like in her mind.
-------
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