Slacking Professionally at Tracen [20]

Symboli Rudolf was right—Kitahara Sota was indeed in danger.

Life-threatening danger, even.

Not long after finishing his chat with Higashimori Yosuke, the infirmary door swung open, revealing an Uma Musume with chestnut hair, crimson eyes, and a mysterious smile. She held two vials in her hands.

The moment she appeared, the infirmary—which had been filled with quiet chatter just seconds ago—fell dead silent.

All around the room, curtains quickly closed and locked. Even the trainer with the fractured pelvis struggled to rise, gritting his teeth against the pain just to draw the curtains shut, before collapsing again, sweating profusely and holding his breath, desperately hoping to escape this particular visitor’s notice.

Rule number two of Tracen Academy’s survival guide:
“If you encounter an Uma Musume wearing a white lab coat, remain calm, and under no circumstances agree to her requests.”

This rule specifically referred to the Uma Musume who had just entered:

Agnes Tachyon.

Tracen’s most notorious mad scientist, one of its most dangerous figures—and in Kitahara’s personal threat-ranking, she stood just below the four heavyweights.

Facing someone this dangerous, Kitahara naturally had no desire whatsoever to interact with her.

He was the quickest to react to her arrival. Before anyone else, he swiftly drew the curtains around his bed, flopped onto his mattress, and began to play dead, trying to diminish his presence as much as possible.

Unfortunately, mere seconds later, the curtain around his bed was pulled open.

The crimson-eyed Uma Musume entered with a gentle smile and sat casually beside him.

“Good afternoon, Trainer Kitahara.”

“Ahem—Miss, you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m Nobita Nobi. Who is this Kitahara Sota person anyway…?”

Agnes Tachyon tapped her cheek thoughtfully, tilting her head with a mischievous grin.

“Is that so? But your name tag clearly says ‘Kitahara Sota’ right there on your chest.”

Kitahara: “…”

Damn it, again? That’s it—I’m tossing this stupid name tag the first chance I get.

Observing the expressions flickering across his face, Agnes Tachyon’s smile widened further, her curiosity piqued.

“You seem rather afraid of me.”

No kidding. Are you seriously unaware of your own reputation around here?!

Kitahara’s gaze nervously flickered to the two mysterious vials in her hands, unconsciously swallowing.

There was a reason why trainers avoided her, and why they had specifically added a rule against her.

Though she’d never caused irreparable damage, this mad scientist had triggered countless chaotic incidents within the school—all in the name of her experiments—and inevitably, trainers were always the victims.

To name just a few:

She’d once concocted a drug that temporarily forced people to tell the truth. Within hours, the Uma Musume had bought out her entire stock, causing Tracen’s trainer disappearance rate to skyrocket.

Coincidentally, the previous disappearance record was also caused by another one of her concoctions. She’d literally outdone herself.

Another time, she developed a medicine that temporarily suppressed Uma Musume’s emotions, wildly popular with trainers who prioritized results and disliked dealing with complicated feelings.

Initially, it had seemed like a great idea—Tracen’s overall atmosphere and race results even improved significantly.

The catch? The suppression was only temporary.

Once the effect wore off, the previously repressed emotions exploded violently, throwing the entire academy into chaos. Ultimately, even the normally adversarial Chairwoman and Student Council President had been forced into a rare collaboration, barely managing to prevent a catastrophe. Afterward, Agnes Tachyon was permanently banned from selling any drugs openly.

Wherever Agnes Tachyon appeared, trainers suffered. This had become an undeniable, universally accepted truth in Tracen Academy.

As a result, despite having been at the academy for a long time, she still didn’t have a proper trainer.

Not that she minded—she was too engrossed in her research (or troublemaking) to participate seriously in races anyway.

Today, however, she’d changed her mind.

Because she had found someone incredibly interesting.

Earlier that day, she’d received a curious message from Symboli Rudolf.

At the time, she’d been engrossed in an experiment when Rudolf’s message arrived, inquiring if she had anything to do with a recent Uma Musume assault incident.

Naturally, Agnes Tachyon immediately denied involvement. Ever since the emotional suppression fiasco, she’d realized she risked getting expelled if she continued recklessly. Now, she merely sold harmless supplements like “Horse Power Energy Drinks” on the side.

But Rudolf’s use of the phrase “malicious incident” immediately piqued her interest.

While Tracen frequently saw cases of Uma Musume assaulting trainers, those incidents usually occurred between tantou and trainers with a deeply intimate relationship. Though termed “assaults,” they were merely affectionate interactions taken a step too far, rarely considered malicious. In fact, Tracen usually turned a blind eye, treating it as domestic affairs unless things truly got out of hand.

But today, Rudolf explicitly used the phrase “malicious incident.” This was intriguing.

Had some jealous Uma Musume violently attacked another’s trainer? Or perhaps some reckless newcomer thought Tracen HQ was a place where she could freely misbehave?

Being a curious scientist, Agnes Tachyon’s interest naturally intensified. When she probed further, Rudolf’s response shocked her.

An Uma Musume stronger than average had attacked a seemingly ordinary trainer with clear malicious intent—yet the trainer not only escaped unharmed, but the attacker ended up unconscious?

If Rudolf hadn’t been the one telling her, Agnes Tachyon would have thought it was nonsense.

This revelation intrigued her so thoroughly that she immediately stopped her experiment—something she rarely did—and rushed to the reported location.

And there, she discovered even more fascinating evidence.

A fist-sized indentation on the wall. Masonry torn apart by horseshoes. A faintly lingering, pungent scent of chemicals in the air.

Clearly, an intense fight had occurred—one that hadn’t been entirely one-sided.

Yet, strangely, there was only a single Uma Musume’s scent present.

Fascinating—utterly fascinating.

She couldn’t help but clap softly to herself, lingering at the scene to uncover even more intriguing details.

And now, here she was, sitting calmly beside Kitahara, chin resting in her hand, ruby-like eyes gleaming playfully as she asked softly:

“Trainer Kitahara, would you perhaps be interested in becoming my personal guinea pig?”

“Nope. Absolutely not,” Kitahara answered without hesitation.

But her smile didn’t waver. Instead, she calmly handed him one of the vials she held.

“There’s no need to rush into rejecting me. Take a look at this first.”

“No thanks. Whatever it is, my answer remains—”

Kitahara’s voice abruptly halted. As he stared at the familiar orange liquid in the vial, cold sweat began trickling down his palm.

Simultaneously, Agnes Tachyon continued speaking, amusement coloring her voice.

“If my assumption is correct, this liquid can accelerate a human’s recovery from injuries, right?”

“But that leads us to an interesting contradiction: your arm injury isn’t particularly severe. If drinking a small amount of this potion could heal you completely, why remain in this injured state?”

She leaned closer, her scarlet eyes glinting mysteriously.

“Could it be that your initial injury was far worse than it appears now, and this is merely the improved state after your treatment?”

“Or perhaps… a certain trainer willingly sacrificed an arm, successfully subdued an Uma Musume who wasn’t weak by any standard, and then conveniently staged everything to look like an accident?”

“What do you think, Trainer Kitahara?”

—

T/N: agnes my beloved

This is a fan translation of 人在特雷森，专职摆烂 by 多功能复读机 All 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!