"So late... the what hell do Ikezoe and that old hag need to talk about to take this long?!"
A few hours had already passed since Ikezoe and Maruzensky left, with Orfevre currently in her rest period.
Constantly fighting against the Auras of Uma Musume multiple times stronger than her was, as expected, a very draining experience for Orfevre; thus, it was not surprising that she could not last very long, needing to recover for a while before continuing.
However, despite not lasting long, the amount of time Orfevre endured was enough to surprise everyone, especially the more knowledgeable ones like Fumino Nase and Imanami.
Even with an understanding of Orfevre's stamina, it truly was a wonder that she managed to persevere under such conditions for over ten minutes.
After all, the disparity between Orfevre and the others was immense; most Uma Musume with Aura in Orfevre's situation would only last an estimated ten-odd seconds, or even just a few seconds, before completely collapsing.
Considering this, Orfevre could truly be considered an anomaly; just the word 'genius'... would not cut it to describe her.
"She really is like Oguri Cap; that stamina is insane..."
"But at least Oguri Cap's stamina can somewhat make sense considering how much food she ate... Orfevre doesn't even eat that much! And it's not like her body is that much different from an ordinary Uma Musume anyway..."
"To be able to hold that much stamina in that small frame of hers is absurd! It's a true eye opener."
Even for a Trainer who had seen many kinds of Uma Musume like Fumino Nase, Orfevre's mere existence made her feel truly unique in comparison to others.
Yet, despite all the praise they had for her, Orfevre still failed to make any meaningful progress, exhausting all her stamina and making her unable to re-enter training for a while.
Thus, while Gold Ship was still taking a break, Imanami and Wada decided to train their respective Uma Musume in the meantime, leaving Orfevre to rest.
Meanwhile, as all of this was happening, Orfevre, who was lying down on the stands, was approached by Curren Chan, clutching a bottle in tow.
"Orfevre, want some barley tea?"
"GO AWAY—!! Phoo... I'm sorry. Yes, I'll drink it, thank you."
Predictably, Curren Chan was spooked by Orfevre's sudden display of ferocity, followed by an equally instantaneous return to normality.
On the other hand, Orfevre too was confused at her own hostility; she knew who Curren Chan was and that she was her friend.
The only thing she managed to gather from her emotions was that Curren Chan's scent was the thing that triggered her.
...After receiving the barley tea, Curren Chan looked worriedly at Orfevre, hesitantly opening her mouth.
"...Orfevre, is something wrong? Your mood swings are getting worse."
"Yeah! Big Sis Orfevre has become super scary lately..."
Sweep Tosho, who struggled to climb up the stands due to her height, also showed a trembling expression as she recalled Orfevre's increasingly frequent yelling at her.
"I... I don't know."
Her gaze falling on the concerned (and scared) faces of her two friends, Orfevre shook her head, not knowing where to begin.
After all, she herself couldn't understand why she was becoming more unstable each day, or why she found it harder and harder to suppress her intrusive thoughts.
She was not like this before... And Orfevre strongly detested this irritable, violent side of herself.
Yet, no matter what she did, from training harder to listening to calm music to even trying yoga with Smart Falcon, she completely failed in resisting this uncontrollable feeling.
She... was truly exhausted...
"—Ah, Onii-chan's back!"
At that moment, Curren Chan's words made Orfevre instinctively look up, and what made her feel unexpectedly relieved this time was that Ikezoe had returned alone, without any annoying insects sticking next to him— of course, she was not counting the two teammates at her side.
However... what was that foul smell coming off Ikezoe? What in the Three Goddesses happened?
"Hm? Onii-chan, you smell of perfume."
Once Curren Chan got a good whiff of Ikezoe, she instantly recognized what the unfamiliar scent coming off him was; as someone who kept up with fashion trends, Curren Chan was naturally very sensitive to perfumes, cosmetics, and the like.
In addition, Curren Chan herself used perfume, so she was particularly well versed in this subject.
Unlike her own perfume, which was very light-scented, the perfume coming off Ikezoe, while not strong, was surprisingly... classic; most likely from some old classic brand.
And considering who it was that left with Ikezoe earlier... the culprit seemed pretty obvious.
"Um, Onii-chan, what did you and Senior Maruzensky... talk about?"
As she asked this question, although Curren Chan was still full of smiles on the surface, internally, she began to consider the possibilities.
'From how strong the perfume is... it's definitely not something that could cling onto Onii-chan from a distance. Does that mean... that Onii-chan and Senior Maruzenesky... had close contact?'
This... truly caught Curren Chan completely off guard.
For this situation to happen, it meant that Curren Chan, who originally trusted Maruzensky to control herself, had been wrong in her evaluation.
It seems... this old woman isn't very good at self-discipline, eh~?
The moment she came to this conclusion, Curren Chan's eyes became slightly unfocused as she began to subtly, almost imperceptibly, squint.
This won't do. Oh no, no, no~ This won't do at all~ It seems she needs to give this old husk a reminder of who Onii-chan truly belongs to, right?
"Sniff, sniff... Big Sis Curren Chan is right, you do smell."
Leaning closer to sniff carefully, Sweep Tosho did indeed catch the odor of perfume before she instantly pinched her nose shut.
"Pu! Disgusting! I hate this kind of perfume the most— here, Kenichi, let me spray you with my specially brewed perfume potion; it smells way better than what's on you!"
"Fufu~ that won't do, little Sweep Tosho~ Onii-chan can't be covered in perfume."
Facing the innocent and clueless Sweep Tosho, Curren Chan smiled and proactively stepped forward to stop her.
Then, using strength contradictory to her size, Curren Chan forcibly turned Ikezoe around and began pushing his back away.
"Onii-chan, you should go take a bath. It's not good to keep this perfume on you; other people will think you're a very frivolous person."
"Ah, you'd also better wash your clothes too. You can leave it to Curren Chan~! I'm very good at ensuring that no scent lingers~"
"Huh?! It's that serious...? I didn't even know..."
Concurrently, as the bewildered Ikezoe was being pushed into the team building by Curren Chan, Orfevre's eyes followed the two from start to finish, all the way until they closed the door to the building.
Orfevre did not stop Curren Chan since she truly disliked Maruzensky's scent on Ikezoe... But, Orfevre felt that she was scheming something.
After all, she had never forgotten that this 'small and cute' Uma Musume was eyeing Ikezoe covetously...
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I'm doing so many late night translation these days I'm kinda getting used to it.
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If you spot any errors, feel free to comment about it and I will fix it as soon as I can.