Chapter 241: with translation of chapter title

NO．3．The Desire to Run

Setting aside the records of electronic products, this was Aomo's first time personally witnessing Chazuo's running.

Speaking frankly, Chazuo's past race results were not impressive.

Being the same age as Ailisuzhi, she naturally, like other high school horse girls, had early challenged the newcomer race and then finished third.

In such competitive races, anything less than first place equals defeat; after a relatively smooth debut, she came fourth in the Yomiuri Cup Yayoi Sho and her weight dropped sharply, and in the Duke Jean Floral Prize she continued to decline, showing that her body and mind bore some kind of pressure.

For a horse girl without a trainer's assistance, debut failure is also normal; at this point either she will encounter a trainer who corrects her condition, or she will walk the thorny path of self‑struggle.

Chazuo is clearly the latter; having once failed to be signed by other trainers, she could rely only on herself, which was inherently difficult.

Far from her parents in central Treesen, although she had relatives opening shops nearby, this good girl of hers would refuse to vent her worries and pressure so as not to trouble her uncle and aunt.

Accustomed to immersing herself in her own world, she coexists with the world in a detached, opposing manner; this is Chazuo's way of dealing with life.

This is starkly different from Zhouri Ningjing's irritable attempt to interfere in everything.

But it's good that she has Zhouri Ningjing, and also other 'friends'.

As a top student of the Spirit‑Summoning Department, having a bunch of ghost friends is only natural.

Among those ghost friends there are several who can offer advice on horse‑girl races and have considerable insight, which is also natural——

【To be honest, I've been using the HuanYuan app to read and chase updates; switching sources, multiple voice tones for reading aloud,. huanyuanapp works on both Android and iOS.】

——After all, they are ghosts encountered in Treesen.

Chazuo thought this way, never considering the possibility that it was her sister pushing her hand.

And in the two months thereafter, with her spirit adjusted and her body restored to health, she stepped onto the turf of the Furano Special Race; Chazuo won by a lead of two horse lengths, and finally she had stepped onto the proper track of her racing career.

——And then she touched!

Because she had not signed a trainer contract, she continued school activities according to Treesen High's set curriculum, greatly reducing her race frequency; thus Chazuo gradually faded from the view of race followers.

She wasn't in a hurry either.

Horse girls each have their own reasons for running; without finding that necessary horse girl, one naturally wouldn't be anxious, just like Ailisuzhi who originally spent all day in the lab.

And what is Chazuo's reason?

At the end of the straight, the black horse girl saw the bend before the turn, and also saw the similarly black figure standing outside the bend.

Upon entering the turn and slowing down, at the relatively close distance, the moment their gazes met, the swift wind after the turn suddenly turned into a gale!

It swept across both sides.

So that's how it is……

The trainers watching from outside, the brown‑haired horse girl following behind, their scarlet eyes all seemed to notice something.

The latter smiled and followed behind the gale kicked up by Chazuo, remaining steady as if standing in the eye of a hurricane at the center of a typhoon, while the chestnut‑haired horse girl ahead, who seemed like a guide, gave no ground.

【Exceeding expectations, Plan No. 2 discarded, switched to Plan No. 3, position corrected】

Far exceeding the training volume of ordinary horse girls, the resulting physical fitness is likewise far above ordinary; if calculated by the game's five stats, Miura Bourbon is undoubtedly overwhelming the other two.

Moreover, she chose what she was best at—the escape‑style running that puts her ahead from the start.

On this basis, even if Chazuo suddenly accelerates, it is hard to surpass her barrier.

Rather, her sudden acceleration carries a hint of recklessness, because the trainer's suggested positioning for her is as a chaser.

A chaser maintains stability in the middle position and is a close follower who accelerates for the sprint at the finish.

By comparison, reckless speeding is a destruction of the original stamina plan.

【Chazuo team member, what on earth……】

——

"Wow, accelerating like this already in the early stage?" Xiqí Feng was utterly surprised.

Outside the track, in the crowd formed by trainers, horse girls, and passersby, although they were talking about horse‑racing souls, they inevitably also paid attention to the racecourse.

"She's a bit anxious," Aomo said, glancing at Zhouri Ningjing, who was also looking at the racecourse nearby, "but it's understandable."

In that brief moment, he saw in Chazuo's eyes a familiar feeling, familiar yet even more fervent.

It was a deeper, more fervent, burning desire than the one discussed last night regarding the Dream Cup.

At this moment he naturally felt surprised; he realized that besides the strongest path of the Dream Cup, there existed another kind of extremely profound 'desire'.

What kind of 'desire' could surpass a runner's yearning for the supreme laurel?

Perhaps…… it could only be the original intention to run.

Aomo saw clearly that the tranquil, burning flame, though already having its tongues lick toward him, was not aimed at himself but at Zhouri Ningjing standing beside him.

Having realized this, he inevitably recalled the writing on that slip of paper, the dialogue in that dream.

Is this her reason for entering the racecourse?

"Miss Zhouri," Aomo suddenly said.

"How?" Zhouri Ningjing's response naturally carried displeasure.

"After we finish talking, could you run a lap together with Chazuo?"

「？」

The jet‑black horse girl turned her head; she, who had once clung to Chazuo's body and witnessed the training, could naturally say: "You're no longer satisfied with squeezing those two unlucky ones?"

"No, I just want to make the fire burn bigger."

He spoke those words softly, and Dazhenhan's gaze immediately turned toward him.

She was likewise a tranquil, burning runner, but out of trust in Aomo she said nothing.

And Xiqí Feng frowned at him, then looked toward Zhouri Ningjing, and finally at Chazuo.

Silent, without words.

This top‑tier trainer understood Aomo's meaning, after all Xiqí Feng himself likewise indulged or even protected the horse girls' true nature.

But family members know their own affairs.

Xi Qi Feng believed he had accumulated enough experience, so he dared to carry out that training method which another faction scorned as 'free-range'; Aomo, as a newcomer, dared to make such a decision.

It cannot be said not bold; even if some equally young peers were to replace him, they ought to rebuke him as a madman.

He should correct it, but after a little thought, he chose to observe silently.

Unnecessarily interfering in others' training is inappropriate; he also felt that Brother Aomo was not so reckless, and besides, there was a mutual aid agreement between him and Aomo; as someone who has been through it, he could indeed offer plenty of experiential guidance.

Moreover, the layperson Xin Tiao Xi, whom they had not noticed, also gazed at Aomo, a silent smile appearing on her face.

She didn't understand horse racing, but she also noticed the gaze from Manchester Chazuo.

After all, that was indeed scorching, scorching to the point of being awe-inspiring, yet it also made her feel unusually familiar.

She had countless times fused such vivid emotions into strange sculptures, then given them life, regardless of good or evil; that was precisely the creator's freedom and willfulness.

Of course, letting those creations begin wanton destruction is another matter altogether.

After being redeemed by the existence she herself created, when she looked back on the past, she inevitably felt a complex mix.

But that merely meant her stance had changed, not her character.

Her character remained unchanged; deep down, she greatly admired Aomo's behavior of trying to fan the flames.

Thus, the only one who would truly speak up because of Aomo's words was still Zhouri Ningjing.

"Don't you think this should be corrected?" she asked, staring at Aomo, her golden eyes accumulating a certain oppression.

She rarely took the initiative to make eye contact with Aomo like this.

The reason was simple: she disliked Aomo's sometimes overly sharp gaze, which seemed to want to dissect everything before her, making her unable to avoid it.

But when it came to matters concerning her sister, she never retreated.

"Which trainer would go so far as to suppress a horse girl's desire to run?" Aomo answered her earnestly, "As a human, that is an obsessive feeling; but as a horse girl, it is a necessary trait."

"With that, she can reach the goal she hopes for and achieve the dream she anticipates."

"I will watch whether that desire turns into a 'demon,' and before that……

He paused there, meeting those golden eyes, those eyes that should have been brown already filled with dark red.

"I only hope it burns brightly and thrives."