Chapter 1931

NO. 551: But fortunately, everyone has

Although the Triple Crown's schedule has long been tried and tested, with preparation time that fits both tradition and academia, it doesn't mean its standard is to let every athlete achieve perfection.

Quite the opposite.

Whether one can complete staged training within the time limit, especially demonstrating sufficiently excellent qualities in that training——

——This is likewise a test imposed by the race itself on trainers and horse girls.

However, the meeting between trainer and horse girl also involves some fate. A versatile horse girl like Aimu Zhiji is uncommon, and trainers often develop specialized training for her in a certain direction.

Because 'stretching a horse girl's strengths as much as possible within limited time' is the trainers' usual pursuit, you can always see various specialized horse girls at any racecourse, regardless of rank or strength.

Thus, the final leg of the Triple Crown, the Chrysanthemum Prize, has become the most classic challenge.

Just the three words 'long-distance race' are enough to become a heavy trial that overwhelms many newcomers, because the vast majority of horse girls' training starts from scratch and progresses step by step.

The difference lies in how talent determines whether certain steps are shortened or skipped.

But no matter the talent, one must still go through that set of procedures, and will always place long-distance track categories in the later stages.

This is because long-distance races have higher entry requirements and their schedules are placed later. Though meant as a considerate design, it leads many trainers to openly postpone them when planning training schedules.

Then this creates an industry norm where long-distance races receive less training.

The longer the course, the wider the racecourse, the louder the cheers—all make it easier to trigger fear in horse girls.

Not knowing where the finish is, not knowing where one is, one feels like getting lost, and feels as if the stands that seem to cover one's head are suffocating; even if faces are blurry, tension arises involuntarily. Once tense, even previously learned training can be forgotten completely, and each step feels as heavy as sinking into a mire.

In fact, many of the red skills in the Three Goddesses Skill Tree also impede athletes' steps based on this principle.

Because source-energy techniques that act on the mind are generally safer than most physical interventions.

Although that safety is also quite limited, any mistake during high-speed running easily brings pain, and injuries in sports are all too common.

But this is clearly not a reason to abandon restraint.

Rather, precisely because of this we should strive for every possible advantage—though saying that brings us back to the same point.

Also, because many of the Three Goddesses Skill Tree's red skills are based on mental interference, Ailisuzhi can quickly get back on track after a poor start, and by mid‑race she is neck‑and‑neck with Manchester Chazuo; now they both surge to the front of the leading pack!

After all, she on this track—exceptionally clear‑minded, seeing the whole course—can, even if initially hampered by a compulsory mental bind, tear it away at the utmost speed.

To be sure, when it comes to endurance, Ailisuzhi herself admits she falls far short of the self‑torturing guinea pig and the mechanical guinea pig.

But speaking of her resolve to win this race right now, she will not yield an inch!

She will rise again, she will persist, she will try to join forces with that reluctant one—who, being a fellow specialist, must team up with Chazuo, pulling the horse girls behind them to push the race forward at a faster pace!

And this is unavoidable.

After all, both lagging and chasing are running styles that dominate everything with absolute speed.

You need not expand your lead early; just at the moment you enter the final straight, unleash a dangerous all‑out sprint to decide the race—the kick is the trump card, the only trump card, for such runners.

But what if one cannot prevail in this aspect?

The same lagging and chasing, the same excellent kick—just from the opponent data gathered by their trainers, they can see formidable foes numbering in the thousands.

Besides that, the most deadly key is that the kick's speed may be hard to sustain.

The final straights of short, middle, and long‑distance races are three distinct distance concepts. The kick speed that shines in the Gaoyue Prize and Jidong Derby, even if reproduced in the Chrysanthemum Prize, will show fatigue over time.

To be sure, everyone has had experience with long‑distance race simulations arranged by trainers these past months, and has occasionally surprised themselves with over‑performance, but some discoveries only become apparent when actually at the race.

For instance—someone may be better suited to this venue than oneself.

Faster, steadier steps; a more stable arm swing; a more composed energy expenditure……

A new domain always brings an unwelcome possibility: your defeated subordinates may reveal a new talent.

It might stem from a special training method, or simply be an innate advantage—though invisible on middle‑distance fields and sometimes hidden in public, it now shows plainly in the eyes of equally elite, perceptive rivals.

Without a doubt!

On the racecourse, the hardest thing to observe is the whole track; the easiest to notice is the change in the nearby runners.

Whether one is the arrogant strategist who treats all players as chess pieces, or the meticulous one who logs every tiny move of anyone entering the field to judge, the red‑skill specialist…

…all make the same unanimous choice.

Given the situation created by that decision, the most qualified to disrupt it is surely the one who is unmoved by their calculations yet has a clear endurance advantage.

——

Sister……

Trainer……

Precisely because I can perceive that familiar field of view and feel that solid sensation, I can find a moment of peace amidst the chaos on the field.

No sound, no color.

All matter is like a blurry ball of light, covering her eyes.

Yet her consciousness extends infinitely, as if it could touch all things yet firmly excludes perceiving them.

What she can perceive is only that one silhouette.

Seated far above, a grown male's outline casts two silhouettes, that one silhouette.

「The far-reaching gazes of those who placed bets could, in that dead silent world, completely ignite the Weaver Girl star that had remained silent until now! 」

「Accelerated! On the final stretch of the Chrysanthemum Prize track! All the horse girls entered the final acceleration at the same time——How fast! How fast Aimu Zhiji! She overtook Xunjie Liuye, Shouxinuhai, and Lengxiaoyinguang! Seventh, sixth, fifth! She ran neck-and-neck with the roaring Senlinbaoxue, and further surpassed it! Fourth! 」

「In an instant, they were all familiar faces again, huh. 」

「Round and round! The Triple Crown classic Saichang has returned once more to the Ophiuchus team's civil war! But Senlinbaoxue still gives relentless chase! On this slightly prolonged final stretch, only she and the nearby renowned general Dianji can retrieve the disadvantage! Can they succeed! Ahead of her are Ailisuzhi, whose skills keep triggering, and Manchester Chazuo! 」

「Very conventionally, they saved their skills for the end of the middle phase and the start of the final phase, huh; both unexpectedly held their composure. 」

「But undoubtedly, the one with even greater composure is that continuing Mercedes' azure comet! 」

「Aimu Zhiji! Aimu Zhiji has caught up! The distance is less than six horse lengths! Will she be overtaken! Can Meiupu Bopan maintain her current advantage! The precise and ruthless steps of the cyborg horse girl! Can she continue to maintain those overbearing crushing steps?! 」

「Before that, the speed of Ailisuzhi and Manchester Chazuo... 」

「On the speed measurement marker set below the commentary-reminded Saichang system, a completely new value suddenly appeared, yet it did not come from the two at the front. 」

It's a double burst! The three who clung on tightly all caught up! Including the Senlinbaoxue that likewise persisted in pursuit!

If they throw themselves into the frontline battlefield like this, won't they lose speed too early? There's still half the distance left on the straight.

But greater speed can compress time! Ailisuzhi! caught up to Aimu Zhiji! The Mancheng Chazuo, which had greatly closed the distance with its innate skill, was just overtaken by the faster Senlinbaoxue, yet it also released an obvious red skill! It had little effect! But the distance to first place is already very close! Senlinbaoxue began to lose speed! This relentless final stretch, where nobody wanted to yield, turned the last seven hundred meters into a fierce battlefield where they were separated by no more than a horse's length.

It can be said to be the liveliest final straight in recent years! Even the commentator, who had always been calm, finally carried a tone of exclamation.

It is also hard to believe that in the final round, where the theoretical gap was most obvious, one would witness such a tight and chaotic showdown.

?? chapter tips:

? Considered writing the four-five-six whatever as 'four-five-six', after all Constant City is also counted as part of the East Yan Culture area coverage, but I always felt that shouting 'seventh', 'sixth' out loud without the four-five-six suffix felt unnatural, so I still used this set.

? Might as well treat it as automatically translated into Japanese (x)

? (End of chapter)