Chapter 8: Even After Reincarnating, I Was Still a Corporate Drone

For example.

Imagine you have a daughter.

And imagine you’ve done everything you possibly could, in your own way, so she could live a proper, healthy life.

But one day, she tells you this:

"Father, living isn’t fun for me."

What would a father think in that moment?

Answer:

"Sigh…"

Your brain just shuts down. You can’t think at all.

…Those words echo in my ears on repeat.

"I have never found racing fun. I run because I must win."

Even though three months have passed since she told me that truth after her debut race, it still weighs heavily on me.

Fundamentally, Uma Musume are creatures who enjoy running.

…At least, in the app before I got reincarnated, everyone seemed to enjoy it, and I never heard of exceptions in the Horino household either.

If you think about it, Uma Musume carry instincts far stronger than humans.

To run. To sprint faster than anyone else.

Originally, these were ancient animal instincts meant to escape predators stronger than themselves.

Uma Musume have probably sublimated that instinct into pleasure.

Running without the purpose of escaping predators simply became a way to experience pure delight.

Just like humans take pleasure in eating, sleeping, or mating, Uma Musume enjoy running.

…Or so that was my theory up until I came to the Central Training Academy.

But reality proved otherwise. My assigned Uma Musume does not enjoy running.

She runs only to satisfy the obsession of “I must win.”

So then.

What does it really mean to “stay close to her heart” here?

She doesn’t particularly want to run.

If anything, even her impulse of “wanting to win” doesn’t seem grounded in any internal logic.

It’s highly possible she’s simply convinced herself, “This is what I must do.”

Where is her heart, then?

What does the girl named Hoshino Wilm truly want to do?

Inside me, the answer still hasn’t taken shape.

Until it does, all I can do—regrettably—is maintain the status quo… or so I think.

Ahh, how pathetic.

If only I were a capable trainer, I might’ve noticed her wishes immediately, supported her properly.

"Hey, hey, Trainer Horino?"

"Mm—huh?"

A voice called out, pulling me back from the world of thoughts.

…Unacceptable. I’d let my focus slip so much I hadn’t even noticed the Uma Musume standing in front of me.

"Nice Nature? If you’re here… ah, I see, it’s about time for the joint training session."

"Yep, that’s right, buuut—Trainer Horino, are you tired? Should I go tell my trainer for you?"

"Unnecessary. If you were to get into an accident because I wasn’t paying attention, I wouldn’t be able to apologize even in death."

"Even in death? You’re as dramatic as ever, y’know."

She held her palms up in exasperation—classic Nice Nature.

Her name is Nice Nature.

…A so-called named Uma Musume who also appeared in the app.

Nice Nature.

Everyone knows her as the warm-hearted, down-to-earth Uma Musume. Cheerful and bright but lacking self-confidence, sometimes slipping into self-deprecating moods.

Friendly, caring, and loved by many. Near the Academy’s shopping district, she’s practically idol-tier popular, and the unofficial races she joins often draw big crowds.

As for her racing ability—well, she left behind the absurd legend of finishing third in the Arima Kinen for three consecutive years, earning the title of Bronze Collector. Her skills are solid. As solid as folded-paper trophies… literally.

…Of course, that was based on actual historical racing in the previous-world app.

Where the Nice Nature of this world—this living person—will end up, nobody knows. In the app, you could even train her to sweep the Triple Crown undefeated.

I’m a rookie trainer, allowed to have only one assigned Uma Musume.

And that position is filled by Hoshino Wilm, so naturally Nice Nature is not mine.

She’s assigned to a fellow trainer from my cohort.

She’s also the same generation as Hoshino Wilm, meaning they’re rivals who might meet in the same races.

The reason a girl like her is in my trainer’s room is simple: thanks to connections within our cohort, we set up some mock races, and over the past three months we’ve begun doing joint training with the Nature team.

…Wilm, honestly. To use her debut-completion reward on something like this—she must really like Nature. Not that I don’t get it; Nature is great…

Well, the Nature side wanted it too, so talks moved quickly and everything worked out fine, but…

"Hmm. If I’m going to step into it, I guess it has to start there?"

"Huh? Whatcha mumbling about, Trainer Horino?"

"No, it’s nothing. Let’s go."

The Uma Musume named Hoshino Wilm is an incredibly difficult, problem-prone filly.

She performs her training diligently and generally listens.

…However, she’ll still go off and do extra training on her own even if I tell her not to, she has zero interest in anything unrelated to getting faster or improving her racing outlook, and worst of all, she can’t hold back in a race and risks collapsing from overexertion.

She’s troublesome in a completely different direction from Gold Ship—she requires extremely delicate handling.

If any trainer without prior knowledge from the app were assigned to her, managing her would be a nightmare.

And since management is hard, you might think you could let her be—but that’s impossible. If left alone, she’ll put herself through excessive training, and in the worst case, enter a race on her own, win on her own, and break herself on her own.

…How has this child survived up to now?

There is a method, though. A secret technique I’ve developed over nearly a year.

The trick is to make her schedule so tightly packed she has zero room to do extra training, forcing her to follow the planned routine.

Allocate every moment not needed for essential daily life—sleep, meals, study—to training and rest.

Important warning: if rest lasts longer than thirty minutes, she loses patience and starts training again on her own.

A cycle like: twenty-minute break, one hour of training, twenty-minute break… if set up with absolute precision, drastically reduces her unnatural stamina loss.

That said, this schedule slowly wears her down regardless.

So at least one day a week must be a full rest day, even forcibly. She’ll break out even if tied with rope, so shoving her in a car and taking her on a drive, or pushing her onto Nature for safekeeping, works better. Emotional bonds restrain her more effectively than physical force.

…Yeah. Honestly, it feels less like training and more like caregiving.

Supporting an Uma Musume really is tough.

But on the flip side, once her schedule is set, she trains on her own like clockwork.

Meaning I can leave her and get other work done.

Of course, I only step away when there’s absolutely zero chance of failure, and I still check on her every hour. But thanks to this trait, I’ve gained far more time for paperwork and research. A blessing, really.

So today, after updating her schedule notebook, I holed up in the training room, checking on her periodically.

And while thinking about what to do next, I slipped into deep thought…

Which is how I completely failed to notice Nature entering the trainer’s room.

"Trainer Horino, what’re we doing today?"

"Today is hills. Nothing but the hill track."

"Ugh! Nature would rather do the pool than hills…"

"You’ve already done more than enough pool work. Focus on the hill track for now."

I’ve gotten used to chatting with Nature like this.

At first, for some reason, she avoided me a little, but somewhere along the way she grew more comfortable around me.

As someone from the original app crowd, whenever she’d give me that slightly awkward half-smile, my heart would practically melt. Being able to talk with her normally now is honestly… really nice.

And when Nature’s around, the whole atmosphere brightens. Things have been a little gloomy lately with all the worries and complications, so at this point she’s basically a breath of fresh air.

Of course, she’s not actually one of my trainees, so I make sure to keep proper boundaries in how I handle her…
But even so, getting to talk to a character I admired so much in the app still makes me genuinely happy.

"So, where’s Hoshino Wilm?"

"Ah—well, I invited her, but she said, ‘My Trainer instructed me to continue squats.’"

"I see. Even if it’s a hopeless gamble, thanks for thinking of it, Nice Nature."

"Ahaha… Will-chan really is super stoic, isn’t she?"

When I first found out that my fellow trainee trainer ended up in charge of Nature, I was so shocked I literally made a dying-walrus noise.

But what surprised me even more was how strongly Hoshino Wilm took an interest in Nature.

Until now, she’d never shown much interest in other Uma Musume.
The only exception she ever mentioned was her senior roommate—and even that was just because living together long enough naturally made them close. It wasn’t like she’d been interested from the start.

And yet, with Nature, she marched right up to her and said, "Let’s be friends."

What exactly caught her attention? Maybe her super-strong-Uma-Musume radar picked up Nature’s ridiculous hidden potential. Geniuses really do get drawn to each other, I guess.

Anyway, Hoshino Wilm and Nature hit it off almost instantly, and now that three months have passed, they give off that unmistakable comfortable-friends vibe.

…Well, from what I saw in the early days, Nature wanted to treat Wilm as a rival, but Wilm kept sticking to her, and Nature didn’t really know how to respond.

Now she seems to have either gotten used to it or moved past the awkwardness, and the two are close in both public and private. Very nice, very nice.

While thinking about that, we arrived at the academy’s indoor gym space.

It’s filled with training equipment, and you can freely use anything that’s open without reservations.

It’s a popular spot for pre-debut Uma Musume who don’t yet have contracted trainers, and for those who dislike training outdoors.

…But right now, the atmosphere felt slightly off.

"Haa… ngh, huff…!"

A familiar voice came from a corner of the gym.
The other Uma Musume were all keeping a mild distance from the source while focusing on their own workouts.

…Even if she likes Nature, Wilm is still the same as ever—basically uninterested in other Uma Musume and not exactly approachable.

As someone with app knowledge, I’d like her to interact with more girls if possible, but if this is simply her temperament… then it can’t be helped. I’ll accept it.

My job isn’t to deny her nature, but to nurture it as best I can.

…Though, speaking as something like her guardian, having so few friends does worry me a bit.

For now, I approached her as she continued doing squats, sweat dripping steadily off her.

"Hoshino Wilm."

"Trai… ner…"

"Stop the squats. Ten-minute break. After that, you’ll be doing a joint training session with Nature."

"Under… stood…"

She folded onto the floor with a soft thud.

…Yeah, she still has plenty of stamina left. She’s right at the point where her failure rate would hit 1%, and once she rests, she’ll recover quickly.

"Will-chan, here, I brought you water. Drink up, okay? Don’t push yourself too hard!"

"Thank you… Nature-chan… It is not too hard yet. Trainer has… not said that training is forbidden."

She’s right—what she’s feeling is short-term fatigue, so after a break she’ll be fine to continue.

While estimating how much training to give her for the rest of the day, I handed her a towel.

Uma Musume bodies are incredible—short-term fatigue basically disappears with ten to twenty minutes of rest.
Long-term fatigue, the kind not covered by that, heals completely with just one full day of rest.

They truly have bodies built for training—you can stack extremely intense workloads on them if you choose.

…But what’s frightening is that long-term leg stress—the “athletic lifespan” risk—runs on a completely different set of rules.
Even as someone reincarnated with app knowledge, I can’t see their leg durability values.

We have no choice but to estimate through regular checkups and examinations.

To summarize: short-term fatigue, long-term fatigue, and leg stress.
Balancing these three and pushing their limits safely is the trainer’s job.

"Nice Nature. You’re talking like it’s someone else’s problem, but don’t forget you’ll be pushed just as hard later."

"Ugh—right… If you do anything too awful, I’m going to go cry to my Trainer, okay!?"

"He spoils me for some reason. He’d probably tell me to work you even harder, if anything."

"…Trainer Horino, are you secretly psychic?"

Nature’s trainer—my fellow trainee—is what you’d call a gentle tactician.

He claims he’s just an average guy, but that’s just modesty.
He’s the kind of person who’ll use anything—parents included—if it benefits his Uma Musume.
His body is weak, but his mind is sharp. He uses his position and advantages cleverly, always maneuvering skillfully to support Nature.

His greed, his relentlessness, and the passion he pours into his Uma Musume are things I genuinely admire.

Among my few friends, he’s one of the trainers I respect the most, and I learn a lot from him every day.

……Or so it goes.

I don’t really get it, but for some reason he looks at me with this… trust? Respect? Something like that. He often comes to me for advice or invites me out for drinks. Honestly, I have no idea why he’s gotten so attached to me, and it leaves me a little unsettled.

Even this joint-training arrangement—when I brought it up, he sent back an approval email in about five minutes. Not only that, he said, “I’d like to follow your training policy. You don’t need to consult me about the details, and a post-training report is enough.”

Is he sane? Does he not consider the possibility that I might make weird adjustments? When I pointed that out, he said, “I know you’re not the kind of person who would do something like that.”

Well… I mean, yeah, I wouldn’t. But still. It feels like he’s putting me on a pedestal. To think he’d trust a mere rookie trainer that much. I’m grateful, sure, but honestly, I’m a little exasperated.

"Still, for Miss Nature to be doing joint training with the great Hoshino Wilm… Even now it doesn’t feel real. Training with someone like me can’t be any fun—you’d just have to slow down to match my pace."

"I… enjoy being able to train with Nature-chan."

"Nice Nature, you underestimate yourself. Very few Uma Musume have the grit to keep up with training loads equal to Hoshino Wilm’s. You should be proud."

"Wh– seriously…? Uh, well… thank you…"

Nice Nature shrinks in embarrassment after her casual remark gets a serious reply.

Nature’s Trainer isn’t here right now, but he’s the type who would usually jump in at moments like this, saying “That’s right, that’s right,” and stirring the conversation.

Hoshino Wilm, as expressionless as ever, still somehow looks in better condition whenever she’s training with Nature.

My trainer life has gotten a little noisier lately, and this is more or less the environment I deal with every day.

As a general rule, a trainer should always watch over their assigned Uma Musume’s training. Checking her condition, observing her growth, making sure she doesn’t get injured. There’s a lot to think about, analyze, and learn just from watching her back as she runs.

Which is why trainers normally accompany their Uma Musume and keep a close eye on them at all times.

…Well, I don’t really need to.

Thanks to the power of “app reincarnation,” I can monitor all of that on my own, so there isn’t much point in physically watching them. Really, I only need to check in once every hour to track how their stats rise, how their stamina falls, and manage their failure rates.

But of course, it’d look bad to completely ignore Uma Musume who aren’t my charge. And if the pint-sized Chairwoman caught me slacking off, I can already picture her unleashing a thunderous “Reprimand!!”

So right now, I’m glancing at the two of them running up the hill track while jotting down upcoming plans in my binder. This reminds me of hiding manga inside my textbooks during class back in school…

Anyway. Let’s talk about my assigned Uma Musume again.

Hoshino Wilm. A runaway-type Uma Musume with utterly ridiculous stats. She already had insane numbers when she enrolled, and now that the Classic tier is approaching, they’re even higher.

Her once-lacking Power has finally reached Classic-G1 standards. If she wants to run the Satsuki, Derby, and Kikka, we’ll probably need a bit more, but with proper training she should make it in time.

Her Speed, Stamina, and Guts are comparatively modest—though since her base stats are naturally high, she can fight decently even as she is. I’ve barely touched her Intelligence. Based on how her races play out right now, she doesn’t really need it yet. …Well, a massive late start would be terrifying, so of course I’ll raise it eventually.

……That said, the truth is Hoshino Wilm hasn’t actually raised her stats much since enrolling.

That’s because I’ve been using about half of her training time on skill acquisition.

In this world, unlike the app version, there’s no concept of skill points. It’s pure repetition and real-world drills until the skill sinks into her body. For example, if you want the “Focus” skill to ensure a clean start with no hesitation, you have her practice starts endlessly and then put her into mock races to solidify the technique.

So far, Hoshino Wilm has learned “Extreme Runaway,” “Focus,” “Starting Dash,” “Cornering Proficiency ○,” “Late Charge,” and “Runaway Technique ○.”

Man… “Extreme Runaway” actually exists now. It wasn’t implemented yet when I stopped playing the app, so seeing it for real made me weirdly happy. I only taught her the basics of runaway tactics and put her in a selection race—and she came back with the skill mastered. Isn’t she too sharp?

As for the others—Focus, Starting Dash, Late Charge, Runaway Technique ○—I remember them being strong back when I played the app, so I made sure she learned them. Especially Focus—it greatly reduces the chance of one of the main reasons runaway types lose: falling behind at the start. To win the Triple Crown, I want to upgrade it to the superior skill, Concentration, before the Satsuki.

Cornering Proficiency ○ didn’t feel that strong in my previous life, but according to the Horino family history, corner-speed retention training was crucial, so I included it. And honestly, it does seem to contribute to her stability.

Future skill plans include Corner Recovery ○, the lower-tier version of the great long-distance skill Maestro of the Arc… since we need to prepare for the Kikka-shō. It’s basically practice that teaches her to ease up slightly and recover her breath during corners.

I have other ideas too, but I’ll decide those flexibly by watching how Hoshino Wilm’s races play out.

Now then. If races don’t give skill points, what’s the point of running them?

Well… the race itself is the main thing, but yes, there are benefits.

For back-runner Uma Musume, racing allows them to observe others and steal their techniques—basically, they can get skill hints. Apparently, long ago, there was a closer who kept racing over and over and grew absurdly fast. Sadly, her career didn’t last long.

…Yeah, none of that matters to a front-running, extreme-runaway Uma Musume who leaves everyone behind!

For Hoshino Wilm, racing is mainly practice for applying her skills in real conditions—plus a way to gain fans. That’s about it. Unfortunate, but that’s life.

Still, I can’t just not enter her into races.

Uma Musume aren’t all about speed. Gaining new fans through race results is an important factor. Higher-prestige races prioritize popular Uma Musume for entry slots.

Therefore, a trainer must choose races with the final goal in mind and establish a route—what we call a rotation.

Hoshino Wilm’s ultimate goal is the Classic Triple Crown: the Satsuki-shō, the Japanese Derby, and the Kikka-shō.

Winning the Satsuki grants priority entry into the Derby; winning the Derby grants priority entry into the Kikka. Meaning: assuming she wins, as long as she runs the Satsuki, she can participate in all three Triple Crown races.

Therefore, what I need to consider right now is… how to guarantee her spot in the Satsuki-shō.

And there are two main ways to do that.

The Yayoi Sho… or the G1 Hopeful Stakes.

The Yayoi Sho is held one month before the Satsuki Sho, recognized as its main trial race.
Winning it gives you priority entry into the Satsuki Sho, making participation almost guaranteed.

Meanwhile, a G1 race—meaning the highest race grade in the country. If you take first place in one of those, your Satsuki Sho entry is virtually certain. And the only G1 race of middle distance or longer before the Satsuki Sho is the Hopeful Stakes.

Still… the Hopeful Stakes, huh.

For someone who used to play the app, that name brings back memories—fond, but also bitter.
It’s the race held in late December of the Junior Class, serving as a proving ground for middle- and long-distance Uma Musume.
Back in the app, where you had to selectively run as few races as possible, countless girls failed their training runs because they couldn’t win the Hopeful. Thinking about it now… what a cruel system that was. It honestly makes my heart hurt.

Now then—sending Hoshino Wilm into the Hopeful Stakes… that much is set.

Next, to ensure she can definitely enter the Hopeful Stakes, I’d ideally want her to run a race somewhere between Pre-Open and G3 beforehand…

But this is where it gets tricky.

There simply aren’t many Junior-Class Uma Musume who can run middle distances. They just don’t have that much stamina yet.
Only those with truly solid talent—girls like Hoshino Wilm or Nice Nature—can handle them properly.

Naturally, that means there are very few middle-distance races in the Junior Class.

If we want her to be prepared for the Yayoi Sho, she needs to get used to running at one-month intervals.
…In that case, we need a middle-distance race about one month before the Hopeful…

"Habotan, huh."

The Habotan Sho. Pre-Open, Nakayama Turf, 2000 meters.
I didn’t even remember its name back when I played the app, but this time, it might be perfect.

Alright. That settles the rough outline of her race rotation.

First, late November: the Pre-Open Habotan Sho. She should win that. It sounds arrogant, but honestly, there’s no reason she wouldn’t.
Next, late December: the G1 Hopeful Stakes. This is where Hoshino Wilm will experience what G1 level truly feels like.
After the new year, early March of the Classic season: we take no risks whatsoever and enter the G2 Yayoi Sho to secure her Satsuki Sho entry slot for certain.
And then the main event—early April, the G1 Satsuki Sho. This is where we take the first jewel of the Triple Crown.

…Someone might complain, saying something like, “She’s already popular enough—don’t enter the Yayoi Sho and let others have the priority entry instead!”
And I get it. When a strong competitor steals away a chance your favorite Uma Musume might’ve had… yeah, that’s intimidating. I understand why people might complain.

But that’s not my problem.

If you desperately want to get into the Satsuki Sho, then gather fans through other races—or just beat Hoshino Wilm. One way or another, this is a world where only the strongest Uma Musume get to grasp their dreams.
Between emotional complaints from fans and the dream of the girl I’m responsible for, there’s no dilemma at all.

…Yeah. This is a solid, reliable rotation plan.
I’ll need to discuss it with Hoshino Wilm, of course, though she probably doesn’t care which races she enters anyway.

…………Still.

Even if she does make it into the Satsuki Sho, there’s a problem waiting between now and her victory there.

『"The Emperor" vs. "The Serpent"! Who will claim the Classic crown!?』

"…What am I supposed to do about this?"

Looking at the weekly magazine article pasted into my binder, I found myself troubled all over again.