Chapter 97

After the class bell rang, the crowd around the training field thinned by half; Aomo, hands in his pockets, leaned lazily on the track fence, idle, watching Ailisuzhi play with her phone, absent‑minded, then glanced at the nearby Manchester City Chazuo and uttered a belated thanks:

Thanks for the trouble, Chazuo classmate—by the way, aren't you skipping morning class?

No problem...... I have no class in the morning.

While stuffing Ailisuzhi's no‑longer‑drunk water bottle back into the briefcase Aomo had asked her to carry, Manchester City Chazuo was obedient to a fault, like a mare under Aomo's command.

To be honest, even before this, several curious students and staff had already come asking, and a newcomer trainer with two famous mare girls naturally attracted attention.

Actually, their guess isn't entirely wrong, after all Aomo did sign two mare girls, both famous 'problem' mares, just not the right people.

It's a shame that Meipu Bourbon has to attend class honestly and can't free up time, so she can't come help with training.

Thus, when he couldn't free his hands, Manchester City Chazuo's voluntary offer to help was truly moving.

「What do you mean by 'no class'? 」「Do you still remember the soul topic we talked about? Guinea pig, Chazuo is a top student in the Source Energy Spirit‑summoning department! This isn't within your information scope, is it? 」

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It was as if a keyword search had been triggered; Ailisuzhi, who suddenly jumped into the topic, seemed unwilling to miss any chance to take a jab at Aomo.

And this further highlighted Chazuo's honest, obedient nature: 'Because of the Spirit‑summoning department's reputation... I was worried other students would panic... so the school also kept it secret.'

「... Then I'm truly honored. 」

Aomo, who felt deeply about the word 'confidential', could almost instantly recall the events of Heaven's Gate City.

The story begins with 'confidential' and ends with 'confidential'; these days Aomo has no intention of thinking about the Heart of Terra, nor about that secret key.

Among these secrets, probably only Manchester City Chazuo's 'secret' has the lowest threshold to be known.

「You're... Suzi's trainer, so... you'll eventually find out. 」

That's just such a threshold.

But this also helps explain the faint spirit particles we saw earlier.

But compared to that, Aomo wanted to ask about that slip of paper.

「I see... but Chazuo classmate, do you still remember Suzi's lab, or rather, the discarded paper wad in your miscellaneous room? 」

After realizing the other party wasn't hard to approach, he decided to go straight to the point.

「A paper wad? 」 The other's reaction seemed to show no recollection.

「Yes, yesterday I needed to free up a new seat, so I boldly rummaged through the clutter and felt out a paper wad from inside. 」

As he spoke, he kept watching her expression; the doubt on her little face never faded, continually proving his overthinking.

「I must admit that my act of secretly inspecting the paper wad's contents then was quite rude, and I apologize for that; though I won't mention the contents for now, the logo of the Ugeer Company caught my eye. 」

「Because I've heard that many shops near Tersen have been approached by that company. 」

「Well, flyers and promotions… I also have the notebooks they gave out, 」 Only after hearing the end did the girl's doubtful expression fade; she nodded, then instantly went blank, her silly face showing a hint of blush, 'Is the content about… moving… running… something?' '「What? Is that some embarrassing little secret? 」'

Ailisuzhi, who suddenly jumped into the topic, was clearly eavesdropping just to deliver this blow.

Moreover, her face could clearly be seen turning redder, as if hit right on the mark.

Yet seeing her reaction, Aomo felt a bit disappointed.

Simply disappointment at his intuition being wrong.

It looked like just the girl's little secret, not any real suspicion; but as he thought that, he suddenly saw a faint shadow appear beside her, shaking its head at him.

Aomo was instantly stunned, then his train of thought was interrupted by Ailisuzhi suddenly squeezing in between them.

「I never expected, never expected, guinea pig~」

She had still been 'interrogating' Manchester City Chazuo, conducting secret girl‑to‑girl communication, yet she still held her phone, as if a notification had popped up that made her laugh involuntarily, and she was now forwarding it to Aomo: 'You still interested in joining this kind of competition?'

?

Upon hearing that, Aomo first typed a question mark, then an exclamation mark.

Together with Manchester City Chazuo, they leaned in to look at the screen, and there they saw a bold black‑type headline:

【Annual Hei'an Villain System Appearance Ranking Top10, Aomo Lindun first‑round ranking votes, advancing to the top fifty of the second round!】

Aomo remained silent, facing two different gazes—one amused scrutiny, the other puzzled pressure—making him feel like a criminal suspect.

The suspect twitched the corner of his mouth: 'First, I have to say, this isn't a name I signed up for.'

«Second, you ought to get up and listen to me standardize your running form. »

«All right~»

Ailisuzhi also knew that haste makes waste; at least she couldn't rush the opposite side too much, so she regretfully withdrew her hand, stood up, and walked toward the track.

Aomo, meanwhile, first glanced at the empty space beside Manchester City Chazuo, pondered a moment, then still focused on what had just been said.

Chazuo classmate either didn't know or didn't care.

But the spirit beside her seemed to know something, yet gestured for him not to ask.

Let's look for another chance.

He walked over to Ailisuzhi, switched the terminal to public mode, and pulled up the prepared running‑form simulation chart based on her height and weight: 'First, the arms—adjust to the angle shown above, try mimicking it.'

To anyone watching, Ailisuzhi didn't seem very enthusiastic about running; even getting her to run two laps made Aomo worthy of praise from passing colleagues as 'quite handy'.

But Aomo himself understood clearly, and even Manchester City Chazuo, who had approached similarly, could see it.

This researcher undoubtedly wanted to run.

She dwells in the lab, researching the possibilities of horse‑girl speed, and doesn't shy away from conducting what at first sounds frightening—a 'live‑body experiment'—the subject could be someone else or herself.

«Although I could also be the test subject, I'm not there yet, » she had replied when Aomo asked about drug trials.

When the experiment truly uses herself as the test subject, the research goal shouldn't be about drugs.

«Is that right? Put me to use, guinea pig. »

Her torso leaned slightly forward, but her head and upper body remained in a line; Ailisuzhi gently bent her arms to recreate that posed stance.

Her grasp of her own bodily sensation exceeded Aomo's expectations, so he didn't need to over‑correct her posture—just a slight adjustment of her arm angle.

"「Don't worry, I'll naturally correct you. 」"

"「Pay attention, the arm swing frequency must be sufficiently stable; you should understand the importance of the upper arm flexor muscle group and the inner hand muscle group. 」 Speaking, they stepped on the ground, and an ice spike extended from under their foot, stretching forward a sufficiently stable line."

"This is purely a makeshift solution born of necessity, since one cannot move their hands and drawing lines on the grass is inconvenient."

"「According to the length of this ice line, adjust your stride, slightly conserving energy to achieve a full explosion in the final kick. 」 they said."

"In horse girl competitions, the term 'final kick' refers to the explosive power during the final sprint."

"After the overall quality of horse girls improved to the point that mile races were classified as short-distance, nowadays competitions only consist of short, middle, and long distances."

"Even short-distance races have a standard distance of at least 1,800 meters."

"On such a track, it is destined that the vast majority of competitors cannot afford to go all-out with a sprint from the start."

"Even if one supposedly runs straight to the front the whole way, a tactic called 'escape horse,' they must still regulate their energy usage, saving it for several distance segments, and be wary of later competitors' explosive overtakes."

"The true major explosion always occurs in that final stretch, which is precisely when the purity of each horse girl's 'final kick' is demonstrated."

"Regarding this, trainers understand, and horse girls who have entered professionalism also understand."

"「Tunshu Jun~ check the error here. 」 「Don't rush, let's look... retreat one centimeter, good, no problem. 」"

"「……」 The horse girl who strides open their pace, and the trainer who slightly bends their body after stepping closer to observe the stride, the Manchester Chazuo nearby watches this scene that ought to be commonplace, feeling somewhat strange."

"She couldn't figure out the reason, because she hadn't been thinking about researching this aspect."

"At this moment."

"The two researchers, Aomo Lindun and Ailisuzhi."

"They were cooperatively adjusting around the experimental subject 'Ailisuzhi', striving for precision to the smallest error in order to conduct the preliminary trial."