"Suro, I won."
The ash-gray–haired girl who'd taken her debut victory ran straight to Suro to claim her reward. Her gray-white tail wagged so hard she looked like an adorable puppy, practically begging her owner for a pat on the head.
"Yeah… Oguri, you did great…"
Suro's feelings were… complicated.
To be honest, he never expected that not even Fujimasa March could stop Oguri Cap…
And judging from how the race played out, their finishing speed wasn't even in the same league.
Thinking about it that way, March losing wasn't strange at all.
At bottom, it was just a difference in strength.
Wait…
Before this debut, Fujimasa March had been the undisputed number one of Kasamatsu Tracen's new generation.
And now Oguri Cap had beaten her…
So Oguri Cap was now the strongest at Kasamatsu Tracen Academy?
You're telling me the horse girl I picked at random is now the academy's #1?
Oh.
fuck you, God.
My bank account is about to go +400,000 yen, so why do I feel this miserable?
It's fine, Suro. It's fine.
This was just an accident…
It's only 400k in prize money. I can still lose that back out.
While Suro was calculating in his head how to "lose" those 400,000 yen, Oguri Cap suddenly spoke up beside him.
"Suro…"
"Fujimasa March said she knows you. What's your relationship with her?"
"Huh?"
Suro blinked. He hadn't expected Oguri to ask that.
"Me and her? Nothing, really. She just came to my place and bought services a while back."
"…Your place?"
"Come to think of it, I never told you," Suro explained with hands on his hips. "There's a foot-washing and massage shop inside the academy. That's my business."
"March visited recently. I personally served her. That's about it."
"I see…" Oguri Cap lowered her head, murmuring as if pondering something.
Next to them, Kitahara's eyes lit up at Suro's words.
"What?! That shop is yours, boss? Then I've got to go support your business!"
"No. I only take horse girls. I have zero interest in kneading a grown man's feet."
Suro rejected him instantly.
Even if he was doing foot massages, he'd pick a cute girl's feet!
"How cruel…" Kitahara sighed, hanging his head.
"Then… can I go?" Oguri Cap tugged at Suro's sleeve and asked.
"No problem. If you come, Oguri, I'll give you free service."
"It'd be better if you charged me… You already take care of me all the time…"
Why is this kid so stubborn?!
If I charge her, wouldn't that mean I'm working hard and earning money?
How could that be allowed?!
A business like that is a terrible deal no matter how you look at it—Suro wasn't about to do it.
He had to come up with an excuse to wave her off.
"Don't say that, Oguri."
Suro placed both hands on Oguri Cap's shoulders and said seriously,
"An investor taking care of his investment is only natural. Don't overthink it!"
"This is what I should do. You just focus on training."
At this point, Suro absolutely did not dare tell her to focus on racing. Damn it—what if she took that to heart and won again? He'd be the one suffering in the end.
"Anyway, if it's just massage, I can treat you for free. Don't get hung up on it."
"…Okay."
And with that, their post-debut conversation ended.
Oguri Cap got her win, and Kitahara proved his skills.
All in all, a decent ending—
If you ignored the prize money…
Still, 400,000 yen was pocket change to Suro. Tamamo's side had a money sink that started at tens of millions.
Throwing 400k into that would barely make a ripple.
No big deal.
This level of impact was totally manageable!
…Or so Suro thought—right up until Oguri Cap used her terrifying talent to teach him what "investment risk" really meant.
In June, Kitahara decided to have Oguri Cap grind condition races around Kasamatsu.
Earn enough prize money in condition races, and a horse girl could step up to a higher stage—open races.
The Tokai Derby was one of the most famous open races on the local circuit.
That was Kitahara's goal. So he took Oguri Cap on a campaign of battle after battle.
Mid-June: condition race victory, 850,000 yen prize money.
July and August: one condition-race win each—1,700,000 yen total.
Late August: Oguri Cap entered her first open race. She won. 1,800,000 yen.
Then in early October, she even took the Nagoya open race—Youth Crown—and won 2,400,000 yen.
By then, in just five months on the local circuit, Oguri Cap had accumulated a total of 7,500,000 yen in prize money.
Suro had nothing to say about it.
In short—
He was numb.
Sure, with Nishikino Academy acting as a money-devouring monster, hitting his "lose money" KPI these past months had been ridiculously easy.
But what Oguri Cap was doing now was downright scary.
In condition races, she was basically cruising like a dragon through water.
In open races, no one could touch her either.
And the more she won, the bigger her reputation got.
The races she entered grew more prestigious, and the prize money kept climbing higher and higher.
Aaaagh…
This is not how I wanted things to go—!
—
Tokyo. In that familiar ramen shop near Central Tracen, Suro let out a miserable groan and collapsed, listless, onto the tabletop.
Sitting across from him was the second horse girl he'd invested in—Tamamo Cross.
"So… you dragged me out here just to complain…?" Tamamo Cross stared at the man flopped in front of her like a half-dead salted fish, utterly speechless.
Her investor had called her out for ramen, and before she could even eat more than a few bites, he'd launched into a whole pile of baffling whining.
What do you mean your invested horse girl is too strong and you can't take it?
Was this guy seriously humblebragging?
If the man saying it weren't Suro, she would've jumped him and bitten him to death on the spot.
But over these five months, Suro had spent nearly 20 million yen on her, so she forced herself not to explode.
"You're the best, Tamamo. You haven't been winning much, but you're so reassuring—"
"Hah? Are you asking to get punched?"
Tamamo Cross almost snapped.
Sure, since June she'd run four races and racked up four straight losses—but she still placed, okay?!
What do you mean "reassuring"?!
Next time!
Next race, I'm definitely going to win!
I'm going to smack this awful man right across the face!
-------
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