"Famous young author switches careers to become a trainer? Putting down the pen to… raise horsegirls?"
"Studying literature can't save Japanese horsegirls! The author of The Devotion of Suspect X, Mochizuki Toru, has joined Tracen Academy!"
"Shocking: the young author who set the record for the fastest million-copy bestseller…"
The man in the photo was a young man whose looks could almost be called unfair. He glanced down at the newspaper in his hand with clear interest.
The protagonist of the article was none other than himself.
Mochizuki Toru, a black-haired young man barely in his twenties, was officially joining Tracen Academy today.
His short hair was messy, his expression as calm as a still lake. Even at this supposedly important moment, those blue eyes of his showed no trace of tension. If anything, he looked more like a college student.
Mochizuki hadn't expected his employment at Tracen to spread through the news so quickly.
The one who had handed him the newspaper was a gentle young woman in a green cap. Her voice was soft, mature, and full of expectation as she smiled.
"Trainer Mochizuki, your arrival is drawing a lot of attention. Welcome to the Tracen family."
"Here is your trainer's license. I'm looking forward to the horsegirls you'll raise in the future… and to your new 'works' as well."
This young woman was Hayakawa Tazuna, the chairwoman's secretary. One of her duties was welcoming newly hired trainers.
In this world, there existed a unique species known as horsegirls, all of whom were female. Their horse ears and flowing tails were their distinctive traits, and they possessed superhuman physiques and athletic talent.
Many horsegirls were deeply in love with running and thus stepped onto the racetrack. Those professional racers were known as "race horsegirls."
Races between horsegirls had become a rising super spectacle, not only in Japan but across the entire world.
Which meant the trainers who raised them were just as important.
Central Tracen Academy was Japan's most prestigious academy in this field. Every year, not only horsegirls with outstanding talent enrolled, but also trainers responsible for cultivating them.
In human sports, trainers were akin to "coaches," in charge of making their horsegirls faster and stronger.
And Mochizuki Toru… was both a writer and a trainer.
Just like Daigo, who was both human and Ultraman.
Because of that, Tazuna and many of the horsegirls at Tracen were very interested in him. The newspapers made it clear the outside world was paying close attention to this new trainer.
The next second, the phone on the desk started ringing.
Tazuna picked it up and answered.
"Huh? Suzu has skipped her training race again?"
"All right, I understand. I'll go remind her right away."
Airisu Suzu, the genius girl known in Tracen for her explosive speed, was a monster everyone had pinned high hopes on.
But sometimes, geniuses came with their own peculiarities.
In Airisu Suzu's case, those peculiarities were in full bloom. The training and practice races that were essential to any race horsegirl were things she outright rejected.
After handing Mochizuki his trainer card, Tazuna spoke to him apologetically.
"Sorry. I need to go track down a certain truant little one…"
The handsome, composed black-haired young man heard this and instead became intrigued. While looking at the trainer's license in his hand, the corners of his lips curled up.
He'd done it.
His second profession was officially unlocked.
"Thank you, Miss Tazuna."
"Could I go with you and take a look?"
Time to try out a trainer's "job quest."
"Eh? Well… let's go together then."
This was half a year after Mochizuki Toru had crossed into this world.
The thing that had come with him was a system called "The King's Avatar."
After handling his identity and making him a freshly graduated Tokyo university student, the system had presented his first profession choice.
[Writer or Mangaka]
Two options, choose one.
In his previous life, he had been a hardcore otaku. He knew about Uma Musume's anime and had read plenty of manga.
But Mochizuki didn't hesitate for even a second before choosing "writer."
In his view, even hesitating for one more second would be an insult to that option and to the profession of "writer."
In Japan, writers like Natsume Soseki or Higuchi Ichiyo were figures whose faces appeared on banknotes and whose names would go down in history. Their status spoke for itself.
Mochizuki loved manga, but that didn't mean he could accept drawing weekly serials day and night.
Liking good food didn't mean you wanted to be a chef.
The relatively leisurely profession of a writer would free up plenty of time… so he could go find fun things to do.
So he chose the more relaxing writer as his "first profession."
At that time, the system granted him the skills [Memory Enhancement] and [Inspiration Creation], along with a related profession quest.
[Quest 1: Reach a cumulative total of one million copies sold across your works to unlock the Second Profession selection.]
With those skills, Mochizuki had become a professional plagiarist: perfectly recreating the mystery novels he had read in his previous life. With that alone, a single book easily broke through the million-copy mark, clearing the quest.
After that, he successfully unlocked his second profession.
[Race Horsegirl Trainer or Beast Tamer]
Compared to the fairly normal first profession options, this second set left Mochizuki utterly speechless.
Why had the tone changed so drastically?
Writer and mangaka were both creative professions.
But for the second profession, the tone suddenly shifted. One option was working with horsegirl girls; the other was working with animals.
The change was so drastic that Mochizuki couldn't help wondering if, when the time came for the third profession, something like "horsegirl" would appear as an option too.
In the end, he chose "trainer" as his second profession.
He then created a miracle: speedrunning the trainer certification exam in record time and earning a spot at Tracen Academy.
…
Before long, Mochizuki was walking through the vast academy grounds with Tazuna.
His blue eyes stared straight ahead. Although it was just an open stretch of lawn, what Mochizuki saw was a "personal status screen."
[Host: Mochizuki Toru]
[First Profession: Writer]
[Second Profession: Race Horsegirl Trainer]
[Skills: Memory Enhancement, Inspiration Creation, Training & Nurturing]
[Memory Enhancement: Massively boosts memory, including but not limited to memories from your past life and anything you study.]
[Inspiration Creation: Greatly increases inspiration and thinking ability in all your professions.]
Those were the parts Mochizuki was already familiar with.
At the bottom were the new skills associated with his trainer profession.
[Training & Nurturing: Massively increases your ability to raise horsegirls.]
[Blessing of the Three Goddesses: Greatly increases your charm toward horsegirls and slightly enhances your physical resilience in collisions.]
Taken together, these four skills were overwhelmingly powerful to the naked eye.
Only the last one, the so-called [Blessing of the Three Goddesses], left Mochizuki puzzled.
Increased charm? And… improved physical resilience?
"Did the system give me the wrong skill? This feels a bit ridiculous."
The moment that thought arose, he quickly shot it down.
The first three skills were obviously reasonable and useful. It was hard to believe the last one would be completely pointless.
"No… that's right. I heard that horsegirls with exceptional talent are often difficult for trainers to win over."
"And there are plenty of cases where trainers get knocked around during daily contact and end up injured."
Soon, Mochizuki arrived at a more reasonable explanation.
"So this is to boost my affinity so they'll accept me more easily, and to keep me from getting sent flying by some little filly while she's running?"
If that was the case, then it was… kind of, sort of, maybe reasonable?
Horsegirls as a species outclassed humans physically on every front.
And race horsegirls were the cream of the crop among horsegirls.
There had even been popular forum threads discussing whether a top-tier horsegirl running at full speed could hit someone as hard as "King of Hundred Tons" and send them straight to another world.
So obviously, the job of a trainer, for all its high pay, came with serious hazards.
From that angle, [Blessing of the Three Goddesses] didn't seem wrong at all.
Being able to quickly build rapport with horsegirls and gain some physical durability to avoid injuries…
For a trainer, that sounded… perfectly reasonable.
With that, Mochizuki let go of his doubts.
He closed his status screen and switched over to check his trainer quest log.
[Trainer · Quest Board]
[1. Sign a horsegirl and complete her debut race]
[Quest Reward: Slight enhancement to host's physique]
[2. Horsegirls in your team achieve three race victories]
[Quest Reward: Unlock Third Profession selection]
[3… Locked]
After reading through them, Mochizuki couldn't help but smile, a look of expectation on his face.
Quest 1 was essentially a system welfare quest. The truly important one was Quest 2: he needed to rack up three wins.
The debut race would naturally count as one of them. Once he cleared Quest 1, he would only need two more wins with that horsegirl.
"The first profession's quest was simple. I just had to write a single book to unlock the second profession."
"The second profession's quest isn't too hard either, but the difficulty definitely went up."
It looked like things would only get harder from here. But that didn't dampen his spirits in the slightest.
In fact, he was excited.
If this continued, wouldn't he really become a master of time management?
Mochizuki was deeply curious. That curiosity was why, even after achieving huge success as a writer with a boundless future ahead of him, he hadn't immediately started preparing his second book.
In terms of money and stability, being a writer vastly outclassed being a trainer.
With the wealth of literature from his previous world as backup, writing was both easy and lucrative.
Being a trainer, on the other hand, required he study intensively and pass difficult certification exams just to get in the door. The entry barrier alone was high.
In the novel Ash-grey Cinderella he had read in his previous life, even someone like Kitahara, a local trainer, only managed to pass the exam and enter Central Tracen in the later stages of the story. That was how difficult it was.
Thanks to his skill set, Mochizuki's memory was extraordinary and his thoughts flowed with inspiration.
Even so, he had needed several months to pass the exam and successfully join Central Tracen Academy.
And that was only the beginning. Next, he had to sign a horsegirl and start raising her.
After that would come her races, where she would have to fight for victory.
Any way you looked at it, the "sensible" route would have been to prioritize writing while studying for the trainer exam on the side. But Mochizuki refused to do the sensible thing.
He was far more interested in exploring a new profession and the limitless possibilities waiting down the road, and that curiosity had brought him to Tracen Academy.
Only by doing this could he see more "fun."
Becoming a trainer and unlocking a mysterious third profession, walking into an unknown new life… that was what Mochizuki Toru truly looked forward to.
While he was lost in his thoughts…
Up ahead, Hayakawa Tazuna subconsciously sniffed the air, as if catching a faintly enticing scent.
And the source of that scent…
She tilted her head slightly. Was she imagining it?
A short while later.
A classroom that had been left unused by the academy for a long time, which should have been collecting dust, was pushed open.
The familiar, gentle yet authoritative figure of Hayakawa Tazuna stepped inside. Faculty and horsegirls alike knew her well.
Mochizuki glanced around the room once, then stepped in calmly behind her.
Tazuna had guided many younger colleagues and students over the years, but right now, she could only look at the brown-haired girl calmly sipping her tea with a headache.
The girl had short brown hair, a strange, oversized white coat draped over her shoulders, and scarlet eyes. She looked very young, yet those eyes held a hint of madness.
Even in front of the chairwoman's secretary, Airisu Suzu showed no fear or nervousness.
This temporarily disused classroom had been taken over by Suzu as a private lab, filled with documents and experimental equipment.
The desk was a complete mess. Besides stacks of papers, there were tea utensils and a half-read mystery novel.
The title read: The Devotion of Suspect X. The author's name was… Mochizuki Toru.
"Suzu, why have you skipped your training race again?"
Unlike other horsegirls who were born loving to run, Airisu Suzu was far more satisfied when she fed her curiosity. She loved experimenting with strange ideas and pushing the physical limits of horsegirl bodies.
She hadn't been at the academy long, yet she'd already skipped classes multiple times and rarely trained with anyone at the track.
She even refused to participate in the regular training races mandated by Tracen, behavior completely at odds with what an excellent race horsegirl should be.
Tracen could tolerate oddballs, but… they had never seen anyone as odd as Airisu Suzu.
She skipped classes, barely trained, rejected trainers… and just hid in here doing research. What kind of horsegirl was that supposed to be?
"Wow, such a rare visitor."
"Besides Miss Tazuna, there's actually a young trainer here I've never seen before. That must be the guy everyone on campus has been talking about…"
Suzu's eyes flicked from Mochizuki to the name printed on the cover of The Devotion of Suspect X.
The next moment, a faint smile tugged at her lips. From beneath the wide sleeves of her coat, a slender, fair hand emerged. She picked up the teapot and was about to pour Mochizuki and Tazuna a cup of tea.
"Miss Tazuna, Mr. Great Author, have some tea. It just finished brewing."
"No need. I'm only here to inform you of something."
Tazuna sighed, then spoke in a serious tone.
"The academy's patience with you is almost at its limit."
"If you keep doing as you please, you should start preparing to leave school… Why waste such precious talent?"
Her words made Suzu pause. She set the teapot down but gave no promise, no reply.
In a way, that was her form of an answer.
…
As Tazuna turned to go, Mochizuki instead sat down beside Suzu and picked up a teacup.
"Miss Tazuna, there's something I'd like to discuss with Suzu. I won't be heading back with you."
Both Tazuna and Suzu froze.
Then the woman in the green cap seemed to realize something. She smiled and nodded.
Once Tazuna walked away, only Mochizuki and the eccentric genius remained in the room.
Airisu Suzu, the prodigy who refused training races and rejected trainers.
Could there be any more entertaining "fun" than this?
At least, in the few hours since Mochizuki had arrived at Tracen, he hadn't met a single horsegirl more interesting than Airisu Suzu.
He'd made up his mind.
It would be her.
Besides, that book of hers looked very familiar.
"Say what you came here to say, Mr. Mochizuki."
Suzu closed the book and spoke in a low, cool voice.
The young scientist who hated wasting time fixed those red eyes of hers on the handsome young trainer in front of her.
Mochizuki smiled, almost cheerfully. After taking a sip of tea, he spoke earnestly.
"Would you become my horsegirl, Suzu?"
"I promise you this will be a win–win arrangement."
As his words fell, the brown-haired girl in the white coat tilted her head slightly, as if her interest had been piqued.
Even her breathing picked up a little, just like Tazuna's had earlier.
It was as if she had caught the scent of something intoxicating.
"Win–win? And why exactly would it be win–win?"
The truth was, Suzu had received no shortage of invitations and recruitment offers.
She came from a distinguished racing family. One of her elders had once won the highest G1 crown.
The potential she had shown so far was the greatest in her family's entire history. The moment she enrolled, veteran trainers had started lining up to invite her into their teams.
But without exception, she had turned every last one of them down. Even veteran trainers who had raised G1 champions had all been rejected.
Suzu scarcely cared for the basic academic classes new horsegirls were supposed to attend or for standard training. All of her focus was poured into the research she loved.
To every instructor, trainer, and senior horsegirl at Tracen, this was sheer irresponsibility and a waste of talent.
That was why even the chairwoman's secretary had personally come to talk to her. This girl was a problem child, through and through.
Normally, trainers and the horsegirls they signed formed a single unit.
When a horsegirl won, her trainer would share in the glory and receive a percentage of the generous prize money.
In Suzu's eyes, once she signed, she'd be forced into training programs that did nothing for her research while losing most of her lab time.
As for victories, prize money, and fame, none of those interested her. Born into a prestigious family, she didn't lack money. The only things she loved were "research" and "running."
Suzu was willing to run in real races and train on her own, but she didn't want to be ordered around by a trainer, nor did she want to sacrifice research time just to compete. Hence her rejection of "by-the-book" veteran trainers.
To this day, she had never seen a single trainer who could meet her conditions.
Joining those trainers would not be a win–win. The costs far outweighed any benefits.
So Suzu refused to compromise. She refused every invitation.
And this newbie trainer, Mochizuki Toru… on what basis did he think this could be win–win?
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N/T: Hi everyone, I'm Zuru, an inexperienced translator and non-native English speaker, so if you notice any mistakes in the text, please let me know in the comments so I can fix them. By the way, I have a Patreon. There isn't much there yet, but it would really help me if you could consider joining.
[email protected]/ZuruZ