That day, Tracen Academy held an open practice race.
Being an open event, outsiders could come watch, and there'd even be professional commentators calling the action.
Unlike the tryouts from before, this was a proper professional venue with everything that came with it.
This kind of venue had maintenance crews working before and after each race to keep everything in top condition.
The track was perfectly flat, way better suited for horse girls to run on than the tryout courses.
This race was only 1600 meters. One mile.
Naturally, only the most excellent horse girls could participate in this open race. They just hadn't made their official debuts yet.
The crowd was huge. Cheers and shouts rose and fell in waves, completely different from the sparse atmosphere at the previous tryouts.
This place was seriously lively.
"Carrots! Fresh carrots! Bargain sale, 500 yen each!"
"Carrot cake! Who wants carrot cake? Peach-flavored carrot cake!"
"Grass Wonder fan club! Grass wonder fans, come join us!"
There were quite a few stalls set up selling snacks and ice cream around the venue.
Some horse girls even set up their own booths selling food like they were running little businesses.
Since horse girls ate a lot and most weren't stuck on campus right now, business was absolutely booming.
In a quiet corner somewhere, away from the crowds, Tojo Hana looked at Silence Suzuka standing before her.
"Do you understand the purpose of having you participate in this practice race?" she asked.
Silence Suzuka, already wearing her numbered racing bib, said quietly, "I know. For the debut race."
"Right. This practice race is a simulation of the actual debut race venue. As long as you win this practice race, next month will be your debut."
"Yes."
"Go then."
Outside the venue entrance, voices called out cheerfully.
"Good morning, Halo-chan! The race seems like it's about to start!"
"Hmph, I'll grant you the privilege of learning from me, Grass Wonder. I'll show you what first-rate running looks like."
"Hehe, then let's both do our best!" Grass Wonder smiled with her eyes narrowed.
Hayato ran into King Halo again, and the person beside her was none other than the so-called "Immortal Phoenix" herself, Grass Wonder.
Unfortunately, Hayato had already asked around about her. The current Grass Wonder wasn't accepting any recruitment offers from anyone.
What made it worse was that Grass Wonder was already extremely famous. If he didn't act soon, Team Rigil would very likely snatch her up without a second thought.
Especially in this open practice race. If Grass Wonder won here, Rigil would definitely notice her and make their move.
"Why are you here again? Didn't I tell you already? I only accept first-rate trainers." Seeing Hayato approach, King Halo's face showed clear displeasure.
Hayato didn't even feel like talking to her. He turned his head toward Grass Wonder instead and checked her stats while he was at it.
Grass Wonder
Physical Condition: 91/100 Excellent
Speed 151
Stamina 104
Power 145
Willpower 109
Intelligence 126
Field Aptitude: Turf: A, Dirt: G
Distance Aptitude: Short: B, Mile: A, Medium: B, Long: A
Running Style Aptitude: Front Runner: F, Pace Chaser: A, Later Surger: A, End Closer: F
Just looking at raw stats alone didn't reveal that much. What really mattered was distance aptitude.
This race clearly favored Grass Wonder way more. If nothing unexpected happened, Grass Wonder would definitely take first place.
"Who's this?" Grass Wonder looked at Hayato with curiosity.
"Just some new trainer who keeps pestering me to sign a contract." Before Hayato could even open his mouth to speak, King Halo answered dismissively.
Grass Wonder glanced at King Halo, then looked back at Hayato, showing him a warm, flower-like smile. "Halo-chan is just like that sometimes. I hope you don't mind her too much."
Her tone was really gentle and pleasant to listen to.
Hayato introduced himself properly. "Hello, I'm Hayato, a new trainer. Also, since we've met, I still have to extend an invitation to Miss Grass Wonder, though I know I'll definitely get rejected."
"Hehe, you're quite interesting for a new trainer..." Grass Wonder chuckled softly, then bowed politely to Hayato.
"Thank you very much for your interest in me, but I'm not ready to accept others' help just yet, so... I really can't accept. I'm sorry."
"It's fine. I didn't expect you to agree so easily anyway. I just hope to open a door for you, you know? Something to consider when you need it down the line."
"Thank you for understanding. I'll seriously consider it when the time comes. Oh, I need to go prepare for the race now. I'll head out first. Halo-chan, you should hurry too."
Since it was their first meeting, Grass Wonder didn't stick around to chat and left pretty quickly after that.
Even with the protagonist's luck on his side, he couldn't exactly get a horse girl who just met him onto his team immediately, right? That'd be weird.
Hayato turned his head to look at King Halo again, feeling like she might actually be able to help somehow.
"You came here just to watch me race, didn't you... Fine, since you apparently want to watch me race so badly, go ahead and watch. I'll show you what a first-rate horse girl looks like. Oh ho ho ho..." She laughed in that distinctive way of hers, preparing to leave.
Hayato stopped her. "Wait a second. If you race the way you're planning to, you'll lose 100%. Don't you want to hear my opinion first as a 'rookie' trainer?"
King Halo stopped in her tracks. It was true that she knew Grass Wonder's abilities all too well. If she raced the way she normally did, she really had no confidence she could win this.
"Then I'll reluctantly listen to what you, a rookie trainer, have to say. I'm warning you though, I won't necessarily take your advice."
"Then you'd better perk up those ears and listen carefully." Hayato didn't waste time. "In speed, stamina, and power, you're all inferior to Grass Wonder across the board."
"Your only real hope for victory is to let Grass Wonder run ahead at the start while you use a late surger running style. Before the final stretch, just stay hidden in the pack."
"And note, this is completely different from getting boxed in. You're intentionally staying in the middle of the pack, and in the second half of the race, you absolutely must have enough power stored up to instantly break free from everyone."
"Whether you can pull this off depends on whether you can stay calm and not panic in the middle of the pack."
"Finally, only at the last 200 meters of the race can you go all out and accelerate past her."
"Is that what you wanted to tell me? You call that a strategy? That's basically what I was already planning to do." King Halo laughed dismissively, waving her hand.
'Really though?'
The truth was, because of that last tryout race where she got completely boxed into the middle and couldn't move, she'd decided the middle position was terrible because people kept blocking her path.
After watching Silence Suzuka's dominant race performance, she'd actually been planning to charge straight to the front this time and lead from the start.
But after hearing Hayato's suggestion just now, she hesitated slightly. If she really did try to lead from the front, she'd definitely lose against Grass Wonder.
With a different opponent, it might work fine, but with Grass Wonder conserving all her energy while following right behind her? It'd be completely impossible to win.
Which horse girl participating in a race doesn't desperately want first place? No matter what, she couldn't willingly settle for second.
What's even the difference between second place and last place? Both are just losing.
So right now, after hearing Hayato's opinion, she found herself wondering whether she should actually change her race strategy or not.
"Just watch me out there. I'll definitely create my own brilliance as a first-rate horse girl. Hmph!"
She raised her head high and turned to leave with that classic tsundere attitude of hers.
The thing was, King Halo wasn't actually foolish enough to think Hayato only wanted to recruit her and nobody else.
She knew everything. She understood exactly what was happening.
She only spoke with this prickly tsundere personality because of the pressure from her family back home.
As part of the King family bloodline, she absolutely had to be first-rate at everything. Even if she lost a race, she could only smile gracefully about it afterward.
She couldn't afford to lose her composure in front of anyone, ever.
Very few people could actually understand how she felt about all this.
Seeing Hayato openly trying to recruit Grass Wonder right in front of her left her feeling pretty displeased. What's that supposed to mean? That I'm not as good as Grass Wonder?
Just wait and see. I'll definitely prove I'm way stronger than her.
"My my! The ojou-sama is still exactly the same as always!" At some point, Seiun Sky had appeared right beside Hayato without him noticing.
"Seiun Sky? You're done fishing already?"
Hayato hadn't actually seen Seiun Sky on other days at this point. She really was living that carefree lifestyle to the fullest.
Actually though, calling her carefree was kind of a mistaken perception on most people's parts. For Seiun Sky, who genuinely believed information gathering was the key to victory, she never missed any tryouts or practice races. She came to all of them just to observe and familiarize herself with potential opponents.
"Yahoo! Trainer, what a coincidence running into you here." Seiun Sky acted like she'd only just noticed Hayato standing there. "There's no way Seiun goes fishing literally every single day, you know. I study occasionally too. I just happened to be free today, that's all."
"Today, when we get back to the dorms, YOU WILL, IMMEDIATELY, RIGHT THIS SECOND, start training properly." Hayato's voice came out cold and serious.
"Ahahaha, but Trainer-san, today's a practice race day! Shouldn't there be time off for that? Even the school gave everyone the day off!"
"Haven't you had more than enough time off already?" Hayato gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Yoho! The race is about to start! Better focus on watching it." She turned her gaze down toward the track below, concentrating intently on the pre-race preparations.
Hayato didn't feel like arguing with her anymore and shifted his own gaze down to the track.
Seeing Silence Suzuka lined up with the other racers, Seiun Sky commented, "Silence Suzuka, isn't she the one you wanted to recruit before? Then this race has basically no suspense to it, right? She'll win easily."
"No. She's going to lose this race." Hayato felt a bit surprised and honestly, somewhat angry seeing Silence Suzuka down there like this.
Tojo Hana had really made Suzuka give up her natural front runner racing style completely.
"Why, though? Isn't she really, really fast?"
Seiun Sky still vividly remembered that incredible breakaway from the last tryout race she'd watched.
That kind of massive lead over second place had literally never happened before in any race she'd seen.
"Don't tell me you're seriously saying that just because you taught King Halo a few tips, she can actually win against both of them?"
Hayato didn't directly answer why he knew what he knew, but instead said, "Let me make a bet with you then. King Halo really will win this race. If she doesn't win, I'll give you ten whole days off with no training. But if she does win, you have to train obediently without complaining. How about it?"
Seiun Sky looked at Hayato's extremely serious expression, and her lips curved into a nice little arc. "Are you being serious right now? Ten days off? It's not like Seiun even forced you to offer that. Seiun was already planning to start training seriously anyway."
"But if trainer-san really insists on making this bet, Seiun finds it quite interesting, actually. Then sure, Seiun will take that bet. Heehee!"
Looking down at the field, she didn't just see Silence Suzuka down there. She also spotted Grass Wonder. How was King Halo supposed to win against these two incredibly strong horse girls at the same time?
Hayato's internal thought was simply: finally got it done.
After she trained properly for ten days, he should be able to get Seiun Sky into decent racing shape. That seemed pretty good. At the very least, he should be able to complete those rookie trainer tasks he'd been putting off.
"Wait, why are you smiling like that?" Seiun Sky suddenly noticed the slight smile playing at the corner of Hayato's mouth.
"Ahem! It's nothing." Hayato quickly wiped away his smile and looked back down at the track. "Just watch the race. King Halo will definitely win. Have some confidence in her abilities."
"Haha, that's totally impossible. Grass-chan definitely won't go easy on anyone in a real race."
Seiun Sky laughed at the idea. Grass Wonder took every single race incredibly seriously, no matter who she was up against.
When Grass Wonder got truly focused and competitive, even Seiun Sky herself felt genuinely scared of facing her.
It was like watching her personality shift completely. She went dark.
That's exactly why Seiun Sky was most afraid of making Grass Wonder angry or getting her really fired up.
The actual reason she hadn't participated in this particular practice race was that she had absolutely no confidence in beating Grass Wonder right now. For medium to long distance races maybe she'd have a shot, but for mile races? She really had no confidence at all.
Running into Grass Wonder during random tryouts was one thing, but losing to her in front of this huge public crowd? Yeah, she definitely wasn't willing to risk that kind of embarrassment.
"Welcome everyone to our race venue today! I'm Fuyuno Riko, and I'll be your commentator for this race. Together, let's welcome today's stars, the amazing horse girls of Tracen Academy!"
Right at that moment, the announcer's voice boomed through the speakers and began the live commentary.
"Looking at the crowd here on site, we can see that the most popular horse girl competing today is Grass Wonder! She's already achieved excellent results in multiple tryout races!"
Grass Wonder raised both hands high in response to the audience's enthusiastic cheers and applause.
Cute horse girls were generally way more popular with crowds, right? Plus, she'd already participated in several tryouts before this. This wasn't even her first practice race, so naturally her fan support was really high.
"The second most popular horse girl here today is Silence Suzuka, who won by an absolutely massive margin in her last tryout appearance!"
Silence Suzuka's section of the crowd was cheering pretty loud too. She awkwardly copied Grass Wonder's example, raising both hands and waving them, forcing herself to smile for the audience.
"Coming in third for popularity, we have Sakura Laurel, known for her bold and decisive racing style! Because today's race is at the mile distance, her support numbers are also quite high among the fans..."
"And in fourth place..."
King Halo did have some fans of her own. A small group of followers from school were cheering for her, though their voices were honestly a bit quiet compared to the others.
Even though not many people in the huge crowd seemed to notice her specifically, she still made sure to greet the entire audience with her most charming and elegant smile.
This world had very strict rules about gambling. Betting actual money on race outcomes meant immediate arrest and criminal sentencing.
However, when buying admission tickets, you were allowed to choose your favorite horse girl's portrait to be printed on the ticket. You could even buy multiple tickets, up to three different ones.
Even if you didn't attend the race in person, you could vote for horse girls through an online system. Voting naturally cost money too, same as buying tickets.
The way horse girls' popularity rankings got determined was directly from this ticket and voting system.
Children, elderly people, current horse girls, and their trainers could all enter any race venue completely free of charge.
If there wasn't an active race happening at the time, the venue allowed literally anyone to enter and exit freely, almost like it was a free public park or tourist attraction.
These admission tickets were essentially a form of lottery system.
As long as the specific horse girl you'd chosen actually won her race, you could take your ticket and exchange it for a certain amount of prize money from the total pool.
"Well, without further ado, the players are starting to enter the gates, and the competition will start soon."