The Trainer With Little Time Left Just Wants to Live [25]

Now, neither the commentator’s voice nor the roaring venue meant anything to Nakayama Festa, who had claimed victory. Every emotion she had was swallowed by a delayed wave of exhaustion. Not long after crossing the finish line, she collapsed onto the muddy track, only her chest still heaving violently.

Just as Rudolf had been shocked to see, Festa daring to face Gold Ship head-on in the final straight under this kind of heavy going, when Gold Ship held so many more advantages, was without question a grand gamble. She had won that gamble, but that did not mean the risk had been small. One misstep, and her career, which had only just begun, might have ended right here on the track of her debut race.

And even without an accident, Festa’s victory was still a terribly battered one. That much was obvious when compared to Gold Ship, who had also sprinted through the whole race but still seemed to have strength left in reserve. It showed just how much this heavy going had drained Festa.

After all, compared with Gold Ship, aside from explosive power, Festa’s stamina, endurance, power, and so on were all less solid. This was not because Festa had been lax in training. Both of them had been trained personally by Kitano. It was simply a difference in physical talent.

But that was also why, once Festa knew her opponent would be Gold Ship, she chose such an aggressive tactic. Because she understood that Gold Ship’s overall ability was stronger than hers. If she did not take an extreme path and show off her advantage in explosive power, she would lose without a doubt.

Every gamble she took was because she did not want to lose. She did not want to lose to her younger sister or to anyone else. This victory… she had to personally offer it to her Trainer.

“Nakayama-nee.”

At that moment, Gold Ship slowly approached from not far away. But after the race ended, there was not a trace of frustration over defeat on her face, nor any unwillingness because she could not become Kitano’s “number one trainee.” She was still wearing the same cheeky grin Festa remembered.

And that smile from Gold Ship erased the last of Festa’s doubts. Sure enough, Golshi had only been deliberately trying to anger her. She had not truly intended to fight her over… Festa meant, fight her over the position of “number one trainee.”

Golshi understood her personality too well—the way she grew stronger when facing a stronger opponent. But then again, though Festa had no idea what charm that guy Kitano had, Gold Ship simply liked sticking to him… Gold Ship must have been more anxious than any of them, worried that Kitano’s hopes would fall through, worried that his already poor health might collapse completely because of this.

That was why she had appeared on the track. Not only to provoke Festa, but judging from her performance, Festa guessed Gold Ship had probably been thinking, If Nakayama-nee can’t win, then if I win, Kitano will probably feel a little better. That was why she had tricked Kitano into pressing his fingerprint seal, so she could comfort Kitano afterward, right?

Honestly… what an awkward little sister.

With that thought in mind, Festa faced the hand Gold Ship offered her, and that cool smile appeared on her face again. She immediately took Gold Ship’s hand and stood back up. And after the race, facing this younger sister who had gone to such lengths for her, she suddenly asked:

“When we were sprinting down the final straight just now… you held back, didn’t you?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. When we crossed the finish line, I felt you ease off in the last fifty meters. And you’re still standing here so casually now. There’s no way your stamina was at its limit.”

What Festa meant was: why had Gold Ship given up on competing with her at full strength? After all, the final difference between her and Gold Ship had only been a head. If Gold Ship had given it everything she had, that tiny gap might truly have been reversed in the last fifty meters. It was still hard to say who would have won.

Gold Ship clearly could have won. Why had she given up? Festa could not understand it. Yet when Gold Ship was asked this question, she still wore that smile that looked as if she did not care about anything. She did not try to argue, either, and simply answered with a laugh:

“Because Golshi-chan is the kind of Umamusume who only goes all out when she thinks she can definitely win! If I’m obviously not in a guaranteed winning situation and still give it everything I’ve got, then if I don’t win, wouldn’t all that effort be wasted?”

“So since I couldn’t beat Nakayama-nee this time, I just gave up cleanly. Besides, Nakayama-nee, you really wanted to win, didn’t you?”

At this point, Gold Ship showed an especially serious expression and looked straight at Festa as she said, “To me, whether Nakayama-nee wins or I win is the same. But for Kitano-chan, it isn’t the same at all.”

“…Yeah.”

Yet when Gold Ship mentioned Kitano, Festa, who had still been a little caught up over the outcome, slowly broke into a relaxed smile and said softly:

“I wasn’t planning to lose to anyone in the first place. That guy Kitano placed such a huge bet on me. I had to win for him myself.”

“Huh… Nakayama-nee really does trust Kitano-chan.”

At that moment, Gold Ship was somewhat surprised by Festa’s rare frankness. Her eyes shifted slightly, and after some complicated emotion flashed through them for just an instant, a rare trace of loneliness appeared on her face. Still, she continued asking, “So that’s why you dared to gamble so big, huh? You actually bet your own future.”

“—That guy staked his whole life on me. Other than losing, what chip do I have that I can’t afford to bet?”

Perhaps because she thought Kitano was not present, or perhaps because exhaustion had dulled her thoughts, this time Festa answered Gold Ship’s question without even thinking. But as soon as the words left her mouth, Festa belatedly realized something—Kitano truly had given her a great deal of courage.

Gold Ship said she did not want to fight a race she was not certain she could win. In truth, wasn’t Festa’s personality the same? Festa dared to gamble, but she was not a completely irrational gambler either. Take today’s heavy-going drift, for example. If it had been the Festa of the past, she would most likely have given up instead of staking her own safety on the attempt.

But that feeling had changed after Kitano became her Trainer. The sensation of throwing herself into the race without any hesitation—that kind of thrill was something she had never experienced before.

If she had not taken that gamble, even she herself would not have believed she could do it. She would not even have dared believe that she really could beat Gold Ship, who was stronger than her in every way.

“Maybe that guy bet his courage on me too.”

After saying that, Festa could not help placing a hand over her chest. There, she belatedly felt her heartbeat quicken. This blood-stirring sensation felt just as thrilling as the moment she had decided to drift through the inside lane on the track.

“Is that so…”

However, in front of Festa, Gold Ship’s expression grew increasingly lonely. Her long bangs covered her eyes, leaving Festa unable to see her expression. All she could see was Gold Ship silently turning away…

“—That’s what Nakayama-nee said, Kitano-chan! Did you hear her clearly just now?!”

“Hah?!”

In that sudden instant, Gold Ship’s mood instantly went from cloudy to sunny, catching Festa completely off guard. And when Festa instinctively trembled and looked into the distance, she was shocked to discover that not far away, the familiar figure seated in a wheelchair was slowly approaching under the push of another Umamusume she found even more familiar.

“Ki-Kitano?! And Aneki? Why are you here?!”

“Wait, wait a second. Don’t take what I just said seriously! Especially you, Kitano! Don’t you dare overthink it. I wasn’t—”

When she noticed Stay Gold appearing together with Kitano, Festa’s eyes went wide in shock. And with an Umamusume’s excellent eyesight, once she saw Kitano’s beaming expression, then combined it with Gold Ship’s words, she almost immediately fell into a flustered panic of shame.

What she had just said—had that guy Kitano heard it?! That scene also made Festa unconsciously recall what she had said back when Kitano had “faked his death”… She immediately and sharply realized that if these two accidental emotional outbursts fell into other people’s ears, they could very easily be misunderstood as meaning something else!

That guy Kitano is smiling so happily. Could he have gotten the wrong idea too?!

The instant she thought that, Festa felt her heartbeat speed up even more, and her cheeks burned as if they were on fire. She immediately walked in Kitano’s direction while trying to explain herself in a stream of words…

But in truth, unlike what Festa imagined, Kitano had not heard anything.

He and Stay Gold had come all the way from the tunnel. Although he could see Gold Ship and Festa, this was an 1,800-meter course. Even going straight across, there was still quite a distance. With Kitano’s hearing as an ordinary person, he naturally could not hear Gold Ship and Festa’s conversation.

There was only one reason Kitano was happy: Nakayama Festa had lived up to expectations and claimed victory. And the moment she won, Kitano had immediately received the feedback—an entire sixty days of lifespan!

Kitano had once tried to study what standards determined his lifespan increase. In the end, he had found some clues. He discovered that there were mainly three factors that directly influenced the increase in his lifespan. The first was the grade of the race. If his trainee won a higher-grade race, or a race with a higher prize, the boost to Kitano’s lifespan would be especially large.

The second was the value of the race itself. This value was mainly reflected in whether the race had powerful Umamusume Kitano knew, and whether there had been any dark-horse-level explosive performance. If such a race could be won, the lifespan gained would also be considerable.

The third was whether his trainee Umamusume, under his guidance, had burst forth with greater strength, surpassed the results of the historical record, and made up for his regrets.

This debut race’s grade was essentially nonexistent. Fortunately, Gold Ship’s participation, along with the achievement of both girls breaking the record together, allowed Kitano, for the first time, to gain so much time from winning a debut race. It was only normal for Kitano to seem overjoyed because of that.

And just as Kitano was feeling the wonderful sensation of his lifespan extending, and his body beginning to recover function for the first time in a long while, he saw Festa running toward him with her face bright red. The especially happy smile on his face could not help widening a little. Without thinking, he said to Stay Gold behind him:

“Stay Gold, could you wait a moment?”

Kitano’s words had only just fallen, and before Stay Gold could react, Kitano, in the very center of the track and under the eyes of countless people, did something that left everyone visibly shaken. Supporting his body with his hands, he slowly stood up from the wheelchair once again.

It seemed that the increase in lifespan had made Kitano feel his body could support walking. Having not walked for so long, he took a few somewhat awkward steps, but the sight badly frightened Festa directly in front of him, as well as everyone around them.

“Kitano!”

Because of Kitano’s action, Festa’s emotions instantly shifted from embarrassment to fear. She immediately opened her arms and approached Kitano as if trying to catch a piece of porcelain about to fall. But in the next moment, to her surprise and everyone else’s, Kitano did not fall.

On the contrary, when Kitano saw Festa walking toward him with her arms open, he looked even more delighted. Excited, he stepped forward a few paces, bent down slightly, and actually met Festa’s embrace directly, holding her tightly in his arms.

“Hah~”

At that moment, Festa, who had been embraced by Kitano without any warning, seemed as if even her breathing had stopped. Her body stiffened like stone in an instant, and her outstretched arms froze in midair as if locked there, with nowhere to go. Only the burning flush on her face grew stronger and stronger.

“You won beautifully, Festa. I really wasn’t wrong to believe in you.”

What brought the rigid Festa back to herself was Kitano’s joyful whisper by her ear. In the next moment, Festa, who was quite a bit shorter than Kitano, seemed to soften all at once. She buried her head against Kitano’s chest, and only after a long while did she answer in a muffled voice:

“…Just this once, got it?”

After saying that, Festa moved her soft arms and carefully, tentatively placed them on Kitano’s back. At that moment, the sight of the victorious Umamusume and her Trainer embracing played out once again under the gaze of the entire racecourse. And even though such a scene had happened countless times before, it still made the spectators cheer with joy. For a time, the atmosphere in the venue boiled over even more.

Even the commentator was affected by that atmosphere and could not help speaking with a smile once again:

“WHAT A TOUCHING SIGHT! THE VICTORIOUS NAKAYAMA FESTA AND HER TRAINER ARE EMBRACING IN TEARS! I’M SURE THAT IN THIS MOMENT, THEY ONLY HAVE EYES FOR EACH OTHER. THEIR PERFECT PARTNERSHIP WILL SURELY BRING THEM EVEN MORE VICTORIES IN THE FUTURE!”

Without a doubt, the commentator’s perfectly timed stirring of the flames achieved an excellent effect. The atmosphere in the venue was pushed to a climax again, with applause, cheers, and even a few teasing whistles rising one after another.

However, this commentator did not know that his teasing did not receive the approval of everyone present. Not far away, Special Week, McQueen, and Teio almost all showed slightly awkward expressions the moment they heard those words. They could not exactly be called angry, but their faces definitely did not look good.

And even Silence Suzuka, who felt no familiarity toward Kitano and only a faint fear, showed a rare trace of discomfort after hearing those words. Her other hand gripped her own arm with slight force, and she unconsciously bit her lower lip, as if restraining the displeasure rising in her chest.

And if the Umamusume who were meeting Kitano for the first time were already this unhappy, then the emotions of Symboli Rudolf and Mr. C.B. on the other side could only be imagined…

Symboli Rudolf stood with her arms crossed, her expression as normal as ever, saying nothing. However, the suffocating aura radiating from around her had long since made the surrounding spectators flee.

As for Mr. C.B… although her mood was also somewhat unpleasant, all her attention was now focused on Kitano and Festa as they embraced.

At that moment, C.B. felt an unprecedented sourness rise in her chest… The feeling was as if she were looking at a place that had originally belonged to her, only to see it occupied by someone else… and it felt truly, terribly awful.

T/N: BRO CAN STAND NOWWWWWW

This is a fan translation of 时日无多的训练员只想活下去 by 许氏子谦 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!