I, Nice Nature, Am an Umamusume and a Shrine Maiden! [2]

“Dia-chan, hurry, hurry! Teio-san’s Debut Race has already started!”

“Geez, Kita-chan, honestly. This is what happens when you laze around in bed and get up too late in the morning~”

“I couldn’t help it! Last night, the moment I thought about getting to witness the Debut Race of Teio-san, who I’ve been supporting forever, I got so excited I couldn’t sleep all night!”

Because Tokai Teio was participating, this Debut Race had drawn a great deal of attention from racing fans all across Japan, and it was now in full swing.

Just as this Turf 1800m Debut Race at Chukyo Racecourse finished its Opening Leg and entered the Middle Leg, two young Umamusume who looked about elementary-school age and clearly had not yet entered their prime were holding hands, one pulling the other along. As they noisily bickered over not making it in time for the race, they squeezed through the crowd at the back of the stands and struggled toward the very front.

“Sorry, coming through!” The young Umamusume in front, who had been called Kita-chan, dealt with the complaints of the young Umamusume behind her, whom she called Dia-chan, while anxiously pushing through the crowded front row of the spectator stands.

At last, when she, only about half as tall as an ordinary adult, dragged her childhood friend Dia-chan through the crowd and finally squeezed up to the railing at the very front of the stands, she realized the race had only just begun and let out a long breath of relief.

“Phew, that was close. Thank goodness the race has only just entered the Middle Leg. As a fan of Teio-san, if I missed the sight of her crossing the finish line in her Debut Race, I’d regret it for the rest of my life!”

“Teio-san, you can do it!”

As expected of a die-hard Tokai Teio fan who, upon learning that Tokai Teio would be entering her Debut Race, had gotten so excited she couldn’t sleep all night.

The instant she reached the front railing of the spectator stands, the young Umamusume called Kita-chan smoothly blended right into the Tokai Teio fan group, which made up the majority of the spectators and was waving flags and cheering for Tokai Teio.

However, after instinctively jumping up in excitement and loudly cheering for Tokai Teio the moment she saw her racing on the track, the expression on Kita-chan’s still-childish face immediately shifted from excitement to worry.

The reason was that she had noticed that the race had only reached the Middle Leg, yet Tokai Teio, her idol, was already running in first at the very front of the field. She had even opened up a gap of about two or three lengths over the participating Umamusume currently running second behind her.

“Is Teio-san really going to be okay running like that? I remember the Style she’s always been good at is supposed to be Pace Chaser.”

“If she chooses an unfamiliar Front Runner Style, will Teio-san’s stamina last the whole race?”

Seeing worry appear on her face, Dia-chan, her childhood friend standing beside her with her hand still tightly held, changed from her earlier complaining tone and comforted her, “It’ll be fine, Kita-chan. Believe in Teio-san. She’s definitely going to win this Debut Race in the end!”

“Exactly!” The one who picked up the conversation from Dia-chan and Kita-chan, the two little Umamusume who had just squeezed up to the front of the stands, was the slightly heavier of the two adult men standing beside them, one plump and one thin.

After successfully drawing the attention of the two young Umamusume, he continued, “Before today, I watched the pre-race workout footage of Teio-san that her Team Spica posted on the URA official website.”

“And I compared the results from Teio-san’s workout video with the pre-race workout results of the other Umamusume participating in today’s Debut Race.”

As he spoke, he couldn’t help solemnly raising a hand to push up the glasses perched on his nose.

Beside him, the man who was somewhat thinner than him, as well as the two little ones, Kita-chan and Dia-chan, on his other side, all saw him deliberately pause halfway through and very cooperatively put on nervous expressions before swallowing.

“A-And then!?”

“There’s no comparison!” The slightly plump man lowered the hand he had used to push up his glasses and spoke in an extremely certain tone. “There is absolutely no comparison between Teio-san’s strength and the strength of the other participating Umamusume!”

As he spoke, he did not forget to glance sideways at Kita-chan, who had just been worrying about the Style Tokai Teio had chosen for this Debut Race. “Do you know Maruzensky-senpai?”

“She’s the one who was supposedly good at Pace Chaser, but because she was too fast, she ended up running from the front in every race.”

“Y-You’re saying Teio-san’s current situation is similar to Maruzensky-senpai, that legendary senior who went undefeated through her career and won every race by an average margin of more than seven lengths!?”

“Exactly!”

Kita-chan’s face, first filled with surprise after hearing his analysis of the race situation—especially his analysis of Tokai Teio’s choice of Style in this race—quickly turned delighted. The slightly plump man, having shown off a bit of veteran racing-fan knowledge in front of the two young Umamusume and his friend, nodded with a very satisfied expression and continued.

“So the only topic worth discussing in this race is how many lengths Teio-san can open up over second place before crossing the finish line!”

At the very front of the racecourse, the slightly plump man was still showing off his knowledge to his friend and the two young Umamusume he had happened to meet

….

Meanwhile, in the connections’ seats at the very top of the rear stands, the best viewing position in the racecourse, the Umamusume named Maruzensky whom the slightly plump man had mentioned was looking curiously at Symboli Rudolf, who had come with her to watch Tokai Teio’s Debut Race today.

“What’s wrong, Rudolf? Don’t tell me you think there’s an opponent in this race who can threaten Teio-chan?”

It was no wonder Maruzensky asked. After all, while it could not be said that one hundred percent of the spectators present favored Tokai Teio, at least eighty to ninety percent did. Everyone firmly believed that Tokai Teio—who, because she was running too fast, had turned her Pace Chaser Style into the effect of leading the race—would definitely take victory in this Debut Race.

And yet Symboli Rudolf, who had always favored Tokai Teio the most and regarded her as her proudest junior, currently had her brows furrowed, as if she were worried about something.

Faced with Maruzensky’s curious question, the frowning Symboli Rudolf first rested her hand against her chin and pondered for a moment before saying, “Maruzen-senpai, do you remember that Umamusume who transferred over from Hokkaido a month ago, the one the Director personally asked about?”

“Ah, that girl. On her very first day after enrolling, she bypassed the Student Council and submitted an application to the Director requesting ‘the right to freely enter and leave the academy even on non-weekend nights,’ and that application unexpectedly received the Director’s approval.”

“And on the night of her enrollment, for some unknown reason, she scared the Umamusume sharing her dorm room so badly that the girl requested to change dorms overnight, right?”

Hearing Symboli Rudolf’s words, Maruzensky also remembered a certain red-haired, twin-tailed shrine maiden who had temporarily transferred to Central Tracen Academy only a month earlier. Aside from causing a slight disturbance at school on the day she enrolled, she seemed to have lost all sense of presence at the academy afterward. “I remember she’s in gate three for this Debut Race, and she’s the 3rd favorite.”

“What’s wrong? Do you think that child has the strength to threaten Teio?”

“I don’t know…” As she spoke, Symboli Rudolf lowered the hand that had been propping up her chin and once again fell briefly silent.

After a moment, she continued, “But that child has given me a very strange feeling ever since the first day she transferred here and came to the Student Council to meet me…”

“A strange feeling?” Maruzensky asked curiously.

Faced with Maruzensky’s question, the silent Symboli Rudolf did not answer directly. Instead, she suddenly turned to Maruzensky beside her, who was looking at her curiously and waiting for her to continue, and asked an abrupt, seemingly unrelated question.

“Maruzen-senpai, have you ever watched a horror movie alone in your dorm at night?”

At that point, without waiting for Maruzensky to ask what she meant, she suddenly changed the subject.

“No. Perhaps I’m simply overthinking it.”

Then her gaze fell to the racecourse below, landing on a certain red-haired, twin-tailed shrine maiden who, now that the race had just entered the Middle Leg, had already fallen into the End Closer position at the very back of the field. At the same time, she thought to herself:

Perhaps that child truly does have extraordinary demonic talent, but from what I have observed over this past month, aside from that demonic gift, all of her other abilities are far too ordinary.

Back when she was still active on the track, she, the Emperor Symboli Rudolf, had already been an experienced debuff menace. How could she not understand what effects debuff skills—that is, aura-interference skills—could have on the racetrack?

At most, they could interrupt an opponent’s acceleration, distract an opponent during the race or at the start, mislead an opponent’s decisions during the race, and cause such highly limited effects as a Late Start, rushing ahead, or starting a final spurt too early or too late. To put it plainly, they were just petty tricks to make an opponent commit all sorts of mistakes during a race.

Those highly limited little tricks might produce some unexpected, surprise effects if used well against opponents whose raw strength was on the same level as one’s own and whose abilities were more or less evenly matched.

But her, Symboli Rudolf’s, proudest junior—Tokai Teio, who had been favored by countless people even before her debut and whom everyone regarded as the successor to her, Symboli Rudolf, the undefeated Triple Crown Umamusume.

And a country shrine maiden from Hokkaido who had only transferred to Central Tracen Academy a month ago, who was said to have previously attended an ordinary high school, and who had received professional racing training for less than a single short month—

A country shrine maiden from Hokkaido whose transfer application form, in the questionnaire section under questions like [WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO JOIN CENTRAL TRACEN ACADEMY?] and [WHAT EXPECTATIONS DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUR FUTURE RESULTS IN THE TWINKLE SERIES?], contained completely unserious answers like [TO MAKE MONEY] and [PLACING IS VICTORY].

Were they opponents on the same level?

Were they?

No. The two of them were not even on the same level, okay!

After running through that analysis in her mind, Symboli Rudolf’s brows, which had furrowed because she was more biased toward Tokai Teio than toward the other junior Umamusume studying at Tracen Academy, slowly relaxed again.

At the same time, as she moved her gaze away from a certain red-haired, twin-tailed shrine maiden on the racecourse below, even she herself failed to notice that the corners of her mouth had curved into a smile that held joy, as well as a faint, barely perceptible sense of reassurance.

“So I really was overthinking it after all.”

However, just as she finished estimating the personal ability of that red-haired, twin-tailed shrine maiden who made her uneasy, and concluded that the other girl should not pose too great a threat in this race to Tokai Teio, the junior she most favored…

The several thousand spectators in the ordinary stands directly below the connections’ seats where she was sitting suddenly erupted into a commotion.

What happened?

Drawn by the disturbance breaking out in the ordinary spectator seats below, Symboli Rudolf instinctively lowered her head and looked down at the stands.

But just as her gaze shifted toward the lower spectator seats, before she could see clearly what had caused the commotion there, she felt Maruzensky beside her lightly pat her shoulder.

“What is it, Maruzen-senpai?” Having been tapped on the shoulder by Maruzensky beside her, Symboli Rudolf drew back the gaze she had just cast toward the ordinary spectator seats and instead looked at Maruzensky.

Faced with Symboli Rudolf’s confusion, Maruzensky, who had drawn her attention, did not even turn her head. Showing only a side profile that had somehow turned astonished, she raised a hand and pointed toward the racecourse below.

Following Maruzensky’s gesture, and the obvious surprise visible on her profile, Symboli Rudolf also shifted her gaze from Maruzensky’s face to the racecourse below.

Then, in the next instant, her previously puzzled eyes abruptly shrank.

“What… is that thing!?”

T/N: THATS THE KING OF CURSES!!!!!!!!

This is a fan translation of 我，优秀素质，是赛马娘也是巫女 by 百景绘 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!