Chapter 1935: NO.555: StandBy

NO. 555: StandBy

Everything began with the champion being decided at the Chrysanthemum Prize.

However, even after the winners' stage curtain fell and the outcome of the Triple Crown was settled, those days should have seen Aomo Lindun, the trainer, relieved of most of his work pressure and finally able to take a little break, yet he still couldn't walk away from the doubts of that day.

He still hadn't let go of the pressure.

Of course, the high school horse girls, after a temporary lull in their staged career goals, took advantage of their small vacation and the trainer fulfilling his promise, revealing many opportunities, with frequent offensives—this kind of daily routine is also part of the reason.

And the timing of the championship ceremonies for the four adult horse girls' careers is drawing near, which is also part of the reason.

By comparison, a certain mechanical and mystical breakthrough, instead, no longer troubles him so much—once it was confirmed that its activation occurred as an emotional resonance with the audience stands of the real-world racetrack, and after that it fell into silence, it actually ensures that its activation time won't be these recent days.

Jidong Cup, Yama Memorial, Dream Cup Long Distance—these three world-class events, each with attendance no less than that of the Chrysanthemum Prize, are highly likely to be the stage where the Gate of Great Sin becomes active again, though that is still a month away.

What he is thinking about this month is still to mend the pen after losing the sheep.

But saying it's "lost sheep," the actual loss is hard to put into words; Chazuo's defeat in the Chrysanthemum Prize can be said to be a small matter, because she is indeed the weakest in victory desire among the team, yet it can also be said to be a big matter, because after all it was her most likely chance to obtain her first victory.

But at the same time, her desire to win and her utilitarian mindset stem only from the four's private consensus that "if we win the championship, that would be the opportunity to make demands of the trainer."

This should have been a minor cherry-on-top expectation, like getting into a prestigious university and then being able to let parents reward oneself with a computer as a bonus, but for Chazuo, this instead turns out to be more important than getting into a prestigious university.

Indeed, this is also a very common occurrence.

Reality indeed is that many young people with no plans for the future find the vague goals of "which university to attend" or "what job to take" less appealing than the immediate prospect of "if you get in, we'll set you up with good equipment."

There's no right or wrong about it, but the two still differ somewhat.

—If running to fulfill the trainer's promise becomes an obsession that surpasses others' purposes, then in Aomo's eyes it is indeed a deviation.

Even Aimu Zhiji, who has walked out of the shadows, and even a subtle faith like that of Bourbon, is built upon proving oneself to others and to oneself, and receiving feedback.

That is a somewhat complex motive, not purely to secure victory for Aomo Lindun.

Aomo has always believed that horse girls should run for themselves, just as he once responded when a horse girl asked, "If we win the championship, should the trainer prepare rewards and gifts?" by saying, "Winning the championship is your goal to achieve, not something I ask of you."

But to be honest, there are myriad paths, and it's not that there are no examples of horse girls who run for a single person and still achieve results.

Life ought to be judged by the person themselves; commentary and interference require an extraordinary stance, so Aomo instinctively feels he shouldn't bring this up.

When Chazuo lost because of this, he even felt a bit relieved.

Relieved that nothing has yet reached the point of being irreparable.

Relieved that her skewed goal wasn't deep enough to unleash astonishing potential in her, and also relieved that this victory didn't create an opportunity to foster a habit of cultivation thinking.

If one stubbornly pursues this goal to victory, even if it starts without bad influence, it's hard to guarantee that later the habit of applying this success case won't develop—Aomo Lindun, who increasingly grasps causality, also becomes more careful in cutting off such beginnings that risk deviation.

Then—he was counter-questioned by Chazuo at that time.

"Trainer…are you happy?"

It is unavoidable to say that, taking the monster card that activates Demon God Zero via a puppet and then "degenerating" into Aomo Lindun's demon persona form, this medicinal excipient used in symptomatic treatment also carries this risk.

The risk of being seen through at a glance what one is thinking.

The more one likes it, the more one will understand.

Just as one cannot judge emotions by face when facing Ultraman and monsters, the demon-like hard countenance of a demon persona also struggles to express emotions; pure emotional perception becomes especially important, and if one can directly perceive the spirit and deeply sense the soul, one can be called an expert—and Chazuo is indeed such a young expert.

She can observe the trainer's soul pattern in her daily words and deeds, and thus she has an even more extraordinary understanding of displaying that non-human appearance.

That understanding even surpasses her own self-awareness, after all Aomo, while advocating "I examine myself three times a day," does not occasionally turn into a demon persona to talk to the mirror.

It is true that he often uses demon persona training to exercise limb control—whether tail or wings, these are organs needing extra adaptation; although the monster game can lay foundations, it's only foundations.

Different models and sizes of tails and wings ultimately require cultivating distinct sensation modes to be considered proficient; behind every cool, precise maneuver lies a great deal of tedious connection.

After all, he is just such a person with middling talent.

By contrast, Chazuo possesses two exceedingly outstanding talents.

Talent in spirit mediumship, talent in long-distance tracks—outstanding enough to be analogous and transferable elsewhere, even showing early signs before discovery.

An excessively excellent medium, a run with an excessively steady mindset.

The former shows an advantage in spiritual communication, soul perception, dream exploration, and red skill mastery; the latter, meanwhile, makes Aomo ponder during repeated training, and even lets teammates notice in team training.

She should have been the most likely to win the Chrysanthemum Prize, yet her reason for stepping onto the track is that weak.

She had nothing she absolutely needed to prove, nothing she absolutely needed to pursue; she simply came as a horse girl with talent, parental support, and friend support.

This looks somewhat like the prototype of a kingly story; if she could come to the center bearing everyone's brainstorming banner like Senlinbaoxue, it would be even more perfect, but unfortunately—the support mentioned here is not the strong feeling of "you must win," and Chazuo herself is more like a gentle, drizzling rain.

But her heart still harbors a craving for stimulation, for some abnormal elements.

To be honest, such people are prone to go astray.

It's easy to lose oneself on the pursuit, to transcend limits in extremity, but conversely, if she could be given guidance to set boundaries, she would be like herself over the past year, like the coupling of fate's gears, like the beginning of this story, those burdened with fate awaiting their destined moment—then everything would be different.

Horse girls are all girls burdened with fate, and Aomo Lindun once believed that the Chazuo he dispatched to the racetrack could naturally activate her competitive spirit.

Those few seemingly proper victories before the Triple Crown could be called an excellent proof; even after that, despite consecutive losses, it was based on the premise that his generation had many capable people, talents gathered, records repeatedly broken, leading him to further misjudge, viewing Chazuo's failures as due to the opponents' excessive strength.

Much information can also confirm that the fact is indeed so, but looking back now, it's clearly a fact, yet not the whole fact.

Chazuo indeed faces an unusually high-end situation, yet she herself also truly couldn't muster twelve percent of effort.

But he himself didn't know back then, so after Bourbon's victory he unconsciously broke "tradition," feeling that Chazuo's situation posed a great risk and needed a special talk—behind this decision lay his lack of security, his belief that Chazuo would suffer a heavy blow after giving her all.

Nowadays, he also isn't quite clear how he thought when he earlier faced the prophecy symbolizing speed and couldn't get a reply.

Originally it was just a casual inquiry, not caring about the result—that's true—but whether there was still some bias toward Chazuo in that, because it's clear her talent on long-distance tracks is rare and remarkable, and in the realm of inevitable causality there is absolutely sufficient cause…

Even with crystal core memory regression, it's hard to derive a proportional statistic from that taken-for-granted mindset.

But later, when communicating via dual-thread puppet manipulation, he realized that the opponent's emotions as a defeated party were excessively stable, and the chill in his heart became especially clear.

As for that later hindsight relief that made him unable to distinguish good from bad, beautiful from ugly, wanting to avoid the topic but then being bluntly told by Chazuo, he, after a moment of silence, frankly admitted it.

There's nothing that can't be admitted.

He is not only Chazuo's trainer, but also a friend who shares several secrets with her, fully qualified to speak freely about the personal motives that this professional standpoint ought not mention.

And likewise, in hindsight it becomes a problem: the opponent's source of motivation for running.

He also very frankly brought it up, together with discussion on how to strengthen that motivation.

It was exactly in this discussion that his consistent, rambling train of thought helped him link some doubts outside the topic.

This also included: why Speed Symbol passed over Manchester Chazuo and chose Mei Pu Bourbon instead.

His thinking on this issue further extended to those four in the adult group, and, inspired by a flash of insight from the review, he tried to apply it to other horse girls' training to eliminate mistaken ideas, and indeed he discovered that someone had the same problem.

This discovery even linked to Speed Symbol's recent frequent appearances on Saichang and to the minor abnormalities he had noted in several exchanges but hadn't taken to heart.

After another half month of thought and some discussions during the adult group horse girl training, it finally became that conversation between him and Speed Symbol.

Even the abruptness that, in Speed Symbol's eyes, amounted to a cat‑like huff and a snake‑like hiss was merely an example from the script he had prepared to draw out this talk.

Whether it was a misunderstanding or not ceased to matter once the topic was officially opened.

He, intent on mending the pen after losing the sheep, wanted to solve the problem.

And this problem is not merely a personal big problem.

Therefore he must go find the existence that truly can let all joints connect, to seek an answer.

You should know that long ago, even before he appeared, the Symbol family—or rather Speed Symbol—had been trying to get Ludaofu Xiangzheng to make a comeback, to have her race again on Saichang.

Running into him was merely a coincidence.

His performance entered the other's view, making everything seem natural, as if solving Ludaofu Xiangzheng's inner demon would settle everything, but in fact Ludaofu Xiangzheng bore the responsibility and also promised a comeback.

Aomo couldn't help but admit that this partly stemmed from his own reasons, and even more from her consideration of regrets for Qianming and friends, but this also still lay in that Speed Symbol's attitude.

This was the original motive.

Even to this day it still shows a clear presence in Aomo's eyes, so this question must be asked.

?? Unrelated tips:

? End of month approaching, when the guild battle settlement comes, don't forget to use your tickets.

? (End of chapter)