Slacking Professionally at Tracen [77]

Nice Nature was the name of the red-haired Uma Musume who had been victimized by Kitahara Sota.

Due to the pinyin of her name, she was typically called “Nature,” similar to how Kitahara habitually called Grass Wonder “Grass-san.”

Much like Special Week, Nature had grown up in the countryside and didn’t come from a wealthy family.

But unlike Special Week, Nature didn’t have an enormous appetite. She was gentle, considerate, and notably obedient, excelling academically, talented in cooking and household chores, and eager to help others. As a result, she was greatly adored by the elderly and housewives in her hometown, the quintessential “child from someone else’s family.”

Yet even so, little Nature had her own problems.

Specifically, she seemed to be cursed with the number “three.”

Her grades at school were always third place overall. In every school sports meet among Uma Musume, she always took third. On the rare occasions when friends convinced her to buy lottery tickets, she always ended up with three third-place prizes.

Usually, people remembered only the first-place winner. Occasionally, the second-place finisher might gain recognition, but third place rarely drew attention.

Yet, if someone consistently placed third—and did so in literally every competition—it would naturally attract notice.

Nature’s good personality and versatility made her popular among both humans and Uma Musume, and so people gradually became aware of this strange phenomenon.

Third place, third place, always third place.

In any event involving rankings, if Nature participated, the words “Nice Nature” always ended up in the third-place spot.

Initially, people were curious about this coincidence. However, as time passed, the concept of “Nature equals third place” gradually became common sense.

It was similar to asking local townsfolk about the highest mountain in the world. They’d say, “Mount Everest.”

If asked about the second highest, most would hesitate or fail to answer.

But if you asked about the third-highest mountain, they’d instinctively reply without hesitation, “Oh, that’s Nature.”

“Friendship first, competition second, Nature third…”

“The top scorer this exam was XX, second was OO, and third was… Nature.”

“Ah, you won a lottery prize? Must be a Nature Prize…”

It wasn’t intended maliciously. In fact, consistently placing third was actually remarkable from an ordinary person’s perspective, and the ubiquity of this joke simply underscored people’s affection for her.

But the problem was—Nature didn’t want third place. She, too, longed to be first, and had put in tremendous effort to achieve that goal.

Yet, perhaps due to talent or simply misfortune, no matter how hard she tried, she remained stubbornly locked in third place.

Eventually, even Nature herself started to believe this was just her fate—that perhaps she was destined forever to be third.

It was around this time that Kitahara Sota arrived at her hometown.

Rumor said that as long as you hung three carrots outside your door as a symbol, and offered suitable tribute, you could have any wish granted.

At least, if it was related to Uma Musume.

That’s what her friends had told her.

Initially, Nature didn’t pay attention to these rumors. After all, teenage girls frequently circulated strange stories, such as schoolyard ghost tales or similar nonsense.

But all of those stories eventually proved false—just pranks meant to scare kids or cautionary tales created by adults to prevent foolish behavior. Being quite mature for her age, Nature was aware of this.

Besides, it required three carrots…

But as more and more real-life examples appeared around her—such as a local Uma Musume whose leg injury hadn’t healed even after hospital treatments suddenly becoming fully healed—Nature’s resolve wavered.

She didn’t fully grasp the details of the rumor, nor did she know what tribute was required, aside from vaguely hearing that treating this person and his accompanying Uma Musume to a meal would suffice.

So, with a casual “why not try it” mentality, she hung three carrots outside her door.

And, as promised, Kitahara Sota appeared.

“What wish do you have?”

“I… want to become first.”

What kind of request is that?

Though slightly exasperated, Kitahara wasn’t entirely surprised. For some inexplicable reason, at that time many people treated him like a walking wishing machine, coming up with all sorts of strange requests. By comparison, asking to become number one was fairly ordinary.

After talking to her for a while and recognizing Nature’s circumstances, he fully understood the significance of her request.

However, understanding or not, Kitahara ultimately refused Nature’s wish.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help her—he simply didn’t know how.

Sure, he could solve problems related to Uma Musume easily enough, but Nature’s third-place curse had practically reached a conceptual level. This wasn’t something a mere mortal like himself could handle.

But even though he hadn’t agreed to her request, Kitahara didn’t sever ties with Nature.

At the time, he was deeply absorbed in researching physical care techniques, which meant he had less time to wander around solving problems personally.

So he thought it would be helpful to have an assistant—someone reliable, well-acquainted with the local area, and trustworthy.

Nature fit these requirements perfectly. Having nothing else to occupy her, she quickly agreed, becoming his assistant in their local area.

Nothing unusual happened during that time—just very ordinary days.

No Uma Musume hunters, no unusual incidents. It was merely Kitahara and Nature moving around the town, working together, solving minor problems while steadily becoming familiar with each other.

It was one of the rare peaceful periods in Kitahara’s wandering life—a calm, ordinary routine fully matching his definition of an ideal existence:

Work, earn food, resolve basic living necessities. When time permitted, give Eclipse her routine physical care and occasionally research topics that interested him.

However, during this period, Kitahara eventually noticed a subtle but remarkable difference from his past experiences:

His teamwork and chemistry with Nature improved at an astonishing pace.

In his previous travels, he had worked with other assistants—including Special Week, who’d helped out in her own limited capacity at the time—but none ever matched Nature’s astounding compatibility with him.

Truthfully, one main reason Kitahara initially chose Nature was in hopes of eventually helping her break her third-place curse.

Although this was indeed a difficult task, he’d fulfilled plenty of unreasonable requests throughout his wandering years—which was precisely why people mistakenly viewed him as a wishing machine.

Moreover, when Nature voiced her wish, her eyes held a desperate gleam, as if she’d finally grasped a lifeline. That desperate hope moved him deeply.

So, despite initially refusing, he sincerely wanted to help if the opportunity presented itself.

Initially, Kitahara hadn’t expected much from her. Just collecting information and guiding him around would be sufficient.

Yet he soon discovered he’d greatly underestimated Nature’s capabilities.

Aside from the very first day, when unfamiliarity impeded their cooperation, from the second day onward their chemistry began improving at an eerie speed.

Things he’d usually needed to repeat to other assistants multiple times, Nature grasped immediately.

Previously, complicated tasks required him to repeatedly intervene personally. Yet with Nature, after minimal initial guidance, she rapidly became proficient, handling tasks quickly and flawlessly.

Moreover, due to her incredible popularity among local townsfolk—who treated her as their own daughter—Nature’s involvement made Kitahara’s work significantly smoother.

Her exceptional enthusiasm and dedication greatly expanded his client base, enabling him to earn far more resources (food, mainly) than ever before.

Their teamwork grew so strong that Kitahara even briefly considered taking her along permanently, traveling together to various places, resolving problems and stockpiling resources.

Ultimately, however, he merely entertained the thought without mentioning it, instead complimenting her sincerely:

“You really are the best assistant I’ve ever had.”

The best…?

Nature struggled to describe her feelings upon hearing this praise.

“Best” meant first, the elusive first place.

His joyous, honest expression clearly wasn’t mere flattery—she could tell he meant every word.

As her knowledge and skills grew rapidly, more “firsts” emerged outside official rankings.

Mastery of Uma Musume knowledge, the ability to help others, her popularity at home—even the new nickname local children had for her: “Big Sis Nature.”

“Big Sis” was certainly a kind of first.

Though her official ranking never changed, her attitude slowly did. She gradually stopped caring as much about those third-place finishes.

Because no matter how rankings went, she already had her own unique firsts.

But Kitahara never knew her thoughts. If he had, he wouldn’t have agreed. In his eyes, first place meant being atop the official rankings—anything else was mere self-consolation.

Thus, after completing all local requests, he eventually proposed physical care experiments to enhance Nature’s Uma Musume racing capabilities, hoping to break the curse for good.

Yet, although his experiment succeeded spectacularly, it left Nature deeply frightened of him, making further communication impossible.

When he finally departed, she belatedly found courage, rushing to buy another lottery ticket—her first ever first prize.

Not realizing the entire prize pool had been deliberately filled with first-place tickets beforehand, she excitedly rushed to share her joy, only to find the room empty.

Alone, she watched silently as the ticket fell from her hand, dropping into a puddle.

The precious letters faded away slowly, and with them vanished her hard-earned first place.

—

T/N: wow i know he has his reasons but ouch :sob:

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!