Chapter 544: with translation of chapter title

NO. 127: A woman who puts her talent into whole insects.

Telesen's horse girls all have distinct personalities, for their talent and pride are deeply rooted in that personality.

That personality is both protected by family, tolerated by school, and guided by excellent trainers, gradually revealing the outline called talent.

But not all horse girls are suited to such staged growth.

For example, one who already mingled in theater before graduation, and after graduation became a well-known singer in the interstellar theater, a fine opera lady.

Also, for instance, a classmate from Golden City who, while still in the prime of her career, had already become a well-known cover figure in fashion magazines.

Also, there is a classmate who, before even stepping onto a professional path, already had millions of fans and was already Twitter's 'selfie angel'.

Their common trait lies in that 'premature awakening'.

Skipping stages, they at once discover talents besides running and consciously cultivate them so they blossom just as splendidly as racing.

Finally, that third-year junior high student hasn't even reached the age to officially run on the track.

Rather than merely 'bearing talent,' the key to their standing out lies in whether they can beforehand 'recognize' its existence and devote sweat to it.

Very few horse girls achieve this, because the vast majority focus their thoughts on running and worry whether overdevelopment of their hobbies would impede running itself.

They, as young people and students, have their own hobbies and possess skills they can do quite well in certain fields—like the DJ technique of the Great Expansion Sun God, the magical research of Eastern Commerce Reform, and the holy sword affinity of the Desert Hero.

Even the high-achieving spiritology student from Manchester Chazuo, who went home to visit family, only realized after Zhouri Ningjing actively guided her that her mediumistic physique had a natural advantage in the source energy studies.

—At that time she was already in second year of junior high.

Before that, a certain pitch-black Sunday, who had altered her own existence to avoid any ties with her family, was still pondering whether she should appear before Chazuo's eyes.

Thus, being able to early discover one's talent outside horse racing and strive to forge it into a professional level is something very rare and precious for horse girls.

After all, they value racing too much.

Even if there are a few exceptions, they are mostly influenced by the people around them.

When you are born a horse girl, you have an innate gift for knowing how to run faster, you can feel the dopamine when the strong wind blows, and turning on the TV you can see horse girl races, seeing countless spectators cheering and supporting the athletes—

—and the friends, relatives, elders, and even parents around you will say: 'Want to go to Telesen? Try joining a race…'

You find it hard not to value racing.

And horse girl races are competitions with excessively high intensity.

You must spend that much more time and energy on training, so much that you can only have hobbies, not a job.

You might be self-abandoning, or have enough confidence, or your work could be like a model's—where preparation and study time are light enough to equal a hobby, more importantly maintaining your figure—and this also overlaps with horse girls' preparations.

This, of course, is not much either; although horse girls have a winner's stage segment, it doesn't mean they all want to put themselves out there.

A certain Miss Milk Bath, for instance, feels nervous even panicked when her own photo appears in a magazine advertising horse girl newcomers.

So to speak—horse girls who put their time and energy outside racing are truly rare.

While others are still flapping with crude wings, they have already swapped in turbine engine thrusters.

But those aforementioned horse girls are not within Aomo's social circle.

He merely has a one-sided acquaintance, even a one-sided familiarity.

But he cannot help but admit that among his friends there is still a horse girl with keen insight.

And that horse girl is called Ailisuzhi.

She is his assigned horse girl.

And she is also the culprit who made him 15 centimeters shorter.

He is now only 168!

Family, who understands!

The damned hard-to-drink reagents, bottle after bottle, he thought the side effects were just choosing between glowing and turning black, at worst a heaven-hell rupture, but the result was his whole body aching so much he almost blacked out, and after that blackout he actually felt refreshed, then opening his eyes and sitting up, he saw—

Even the scarlet seemed to have grown taller.

Or perhaps…

It was himself who had become shorter.

'168,' standing before the weight scale, he placed that ruler on Aomo's head and recited the number in a Bourbon-like dazed tone.

Although the tone remained flat, Aomo could still hear some slight differences.

The habitual emotionless tone and the shocked, dazed tone, though close, also have substantive differences.

For this girl, there is a kind of suddenness: still in the living room watching Gundam and doing homework, she is suddenly called up to help with a test—she thought she was really going to assist in some experiment, so she deliberately washed her hands and came up.

Then…

Then she saw this trainer who wasn't much taller than herself.

'Please confirm, Master, which age bracket does this number correspond to?' she asked, turning her head.

'Probably around sixteen, give or take,' the vampire foster father, still floating in midair in public mode, not rolling off to play games, struggled to dig up his memory: 'Not far off either—boys develop later than girls, and this kid is the same; he only started shooting up last year, and I didn't expect his awakened bloodline to let him grow a bit more this year, breaking 1.8 meters outright.'

Then the kid lifted his head and fired off a triple: 'Do you have any opinions? Shouldn't you not be playing games? Won't your NPC teammates spray you for idling?'

'You're worked up,' the electronic foster father laughed, pleased at the kid's reaction, 'Don't rush first.'

'Not worked up; if I were worked up I'd just stuff you into the recycle bin.'

'That's true too, you ungrateful brat really could do that.'

The foster father acknowledged this nascent degree, nodded, then looked at his foster son's brow that kept twitching slightly, and added: 'You're still worked up.'

'It's rebellion,' Aomo answered plainly, 'My rebellious heart returns together with my body's youth; now I just find you annoying.'

'You little brat,' 'Suzi, how long will this side effect last?'

Having resolved to ignore his father's 'youngster,' he still asked the assigned horse girl as usual, the only difference being his voice was a bit clearer and slightly hoarse.

And while holding a small device with a linked lens scanning Aomo's culprit, upon hearing that she flashed a somewhat ill‑intentioned smile: 'Speak politely to the senior sophomore, okay, guinea‑pig~!'

'What side effect? You wouldn't think getting smaller is the side effect, would you?'

'?' Aomo, lightly tugging at his loose T‑shirt, peering into the collar to check the early training results, upon hearing that jerked his head up.

But I heard you say it's a byproduct.

"It's a byproduct, but it's also a stable product that's undergone secondary processing!" said Miss Ailisuzhi, who possesses the expertise of a professional researcher, making her words quite credible.

This horse girl is only a job away from being a true professional.

She has the certificates; otherwise the school wouldn't allow her to misuse the specialized equipment.

But for Aomo, these words only give him a reason to stare at her.

After confirming in that prolonged gaze that the other person wasn't joking, he then turned his gaze upward to look at the side, where a seemingly guilty Qian.

Hmm, seems very guilty.

Sorry, little snake…

He even feigned a sobbing tone, but that sobbing was over-the-top acting; when taking the medicine, Aomo wasn't unconscious and could clearly hear the words 'Sounds pretty good.'

So he simply didn't respond and turned his gaze back to Suzi.

When will you recover?

Just sleep and you'll be fine." Suzi shrugged.

Let your spirit recover enough health, and push back the energy that doesn't belong to the soul.

Going to sleep?

…

Hum~~!

Aomo silently waved his hand and tapped the communication connect button on the screen.

(End of chapter)