Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live

"Trainer? Trainer Kitano?"

"Ugh..."

A series of female voices in his ear slowly brought Kitano's consciousness back from the brink. When he opened his hazy eyes again, he found himself not looking at an unfamiliar ceiling, but at a vast blue sky.

He knew, of course, that C.B. and the others hadn't just left him on the roadside. As he came to, he also felt his body become unprecedentedly light. All of this pointed to one answer—he was now in the space of the "Three Goddesses."

"Welcome back, Trainer Kitano. This meeting is much sooner than the previous ones."

After he sat up, the three goddesses, each with a different appearance but all looking at him with kind and loving eyes, came forward to greet him. But seeing them, Kitano felt no joy at all. Instead, he shook his head with a particularly lonely expression and said softly:

"I really... didn't expect my life this time to end so carelessly. I haven't even resolved Oguri Cap's issue yet."

"If, in this playthrough, her issue was inherited from our past, my careless death now means her problem might never be solved... and it might even carry over to the next playthrough?"

Thinking of this made him extremely frustrated. He knew that being able to see the goddesses could only mean his life in this playthrough had ended once again. Although he never wanted to restart, let alone re-experience twenty years of life, he had never been so resistant as he was today.

Especially when he thought of Oguri possibly continuing to live with this unresolved issue for another decade in the new playthrough, while he was powerless due to his reset life, he found the outcome very hard to accept.

However, before him, the three goddesses looked at each other and then broke into smiles they couldn't quite contain. Fortunately, the red-haired goddess, "Darley Arabian," stepped forward to explain:

"Don't worry, Trainer Kitano, your life in this playthrough is not over yet. We just brought you here while your consciousness was still recovering."

"After we've told you what we need to, your soul will return to your body. Please rest assured."

"So, I'm not dead?"

Darley Arabian's words were undoubtedly a healing balm for his low spirits. Hearing that he hadn't restarted, he let out a huge sigh of relief. Thank goodness, he still had a chance to change things.

However, his thoughts clearly didn't escape the wise goddesses. Another one, "Byerley Turk," with short, dark roan hair and a sharp scar over one eye, looking as valiant as a warhorse, suddenly said to him coldly:

"You're not dead, but you're not far from it either. This time, you forced your sick body to cook for that girl and fainted from exhaustion. You lost at least another week of your life. In less than a month, if your charge doesn't win a race, you'll really be seeing us again."

"Do you have confidence in your charge? Are you really confident she can win for you?"

"Of course. With Festa's ability, winning her debut race is no problem." Kitano answered this question with extraordinary confidence. He had trained her personally for years at the Gold Family's home and knew her strength very well.

Even without a breakout performance like in the Arc or the Takarazuka Kinen, as long as she performed at her usual training level, her debut race was a sure win, provided there were no era-defining horse girls competing.

And with the debut race less than a week away, he had already seen the roster. There were no well-known names. The probability of her losing in such a one-sided match was too low.

"But we still think it's a bit dangerous, Trainer Kitano. You don't seem to have noticed that the girl is on the verge of being crushed. If you don't pay attention, you might be seeing us again in a month, you know?"

At this time, the last goddess, "Godolphin Arabian," with beautiful blue hair, squinted her eyes and approached him with a smile. Seeing the still-confused look on his face, she kindly explained:

"That girl is very lonely. She feels you don't pay enough attention to her... Don't you know that?"

"Uh... are you talking about Festa?"

Godolphin's words left Kitano momentarily bewildered. He subconsciously recalled his years with the Gold Family, especially his time with Nakayama Festa, and for the first time, began to think the goddesses were joking with him.

He had gone through so many playthroughs and hadn't just honed his training skills. Having met all sorts of horse girls and served as a trainer for many famous and unique ones, he had developed his own understanding and methods for getting along with them. He wouldn't say every one was a perfect match, but at least he got along well with his charges in every playthrough.

He understood Festa's personality well. She was a horse girl who couldn't hide things in her heart. At home, she was completely open about her likes and dislikes. She always spoke her mind to him. When he was still healthy, she would even pin him down and rough him up a bit. How could she be the type to keep things bottled up?

However, his reaction made the three goddesses look at each other. A moment later, a strange smile appeared on all their faces, and they all locked their gazes on him with a look of schadenfreude.

"—Since you don't understand, Trainer Kitano, why don't you go back to the human world and see for yourself? I believe you'll change your mind after seeing how she is now," Godolphin said, stepping forward to push him. Darley also nodded with a smile and suggested:

"Also, if you want that girl to open up to you, you'd better treat her with your whole heart, just like you used to, okay?"

"That's right. She's your contracted horse girl, yet you're completely focused on your past ones. Of course she's lonely," Byerley Turk said bluntly. Before leaving, as Kitano's vision was obscured, a wicked smile appeared on her face, her voice filled with unconcealed excitement:

"We've also prepared a big gift for you. You can look forward to receiving it in the future—Go!"

Finally, Kitano felt a light but firm kick on his behind from Byerley. In a moment of imbalance, his vision went black. When he came to, his surroundings had completely changed.

His body felt incredibly heavy again. Everything before him was a hazy light. He groggily opened his eyes. As his consciousness returned, he soon heard the familiar "beep, beep" of a heart monitor, and from his bedside, the faint sound of crying...

Crying? Kitano turned his head with some effort. Before him, the familiar knit cap allowed him to immediately recognize the horse girl crying with her head buried at his bedside...

This was the first time he had ever seen her look so sad. And besides the crying, he also heard her sobbing murmurs:

"Idiot... you idiot... bastard..."

"You promised... you promised you'd watch me stand at the top of the world... you promised you'd walk with me forever..."

"Why, why did you just let go like that..."

"If you leave like this, what am I supposed to do... you bastard, what do you want me to do..."

"Besides you... who else in this world understands me... who else would be foolish enough to believe I can do it..."

Beside him, Nakayama Festa's every "accusation" plunged the now-awake Kitano into a long silence. He finally understood that the goddesses weren't joking. In a place he hadn't perceived, her heart... truly held emotions he didn't know about.

No, perhaps my old self would have been able to notice? Hearing her intense emotional outburst, he couldn't help but reflect on his own actions. Hadn't she expressed a lot of dissatisfaction in the past two days at the academy? When he was with C.B., with Oguri, she had been jealous. But at the time, his focus was on them, and he had forgotten to consider her feelings.

He had forgotten that Nakayama Festa was also a very sensitive child with a faint inferiority complex. The stronger her dependence on him, the more it showed she couldn't leave him, that she was afraid he would slip away and leave her.

I really am a fool... If the goddesses hadn't told me, I probably would never have noticed.

Having experienced a "death," the reformed Kitano quickly corrected his mistake. He recalled the goddesses' advice to treat his charge as he always had.

Like before... does that mean supporting them wholeheartedly, indulging them, not being afraid of my own death countdown, and letting their lives have their own meaning?

Honestly, I really can't escape death... But compared to my own death, I really don't want to see these children, who only have one life, cry and suffer.

Oh well, I can be reborn anyway. Everything can be redone. I should just relax and let them live their lives without any regrets. Just like I did with C.B., with Oguri...

As he made up his mind, Nakayama Festa, by his bedside, had yet to notice he was awake. She couldn't bear to look at his breathless, heart-still form. She didn't even notice the heart monitor had started beeping again as she sobbed out her final "accusation":

"Don't you know... I really need you... idiot."

The moment she finished speaking, she froze. She felt a familiar touch on her head. It made her stop breathing, and she cautiously lifted her head.

And there, before her reddened, wide eyes, the man who had been dead just minutes before was looking at her with a smile full of apology and relief.

For a moment, she was stunned, thinking she was hallucinating. She thought she was so dependent on this man, the only one who understood and trusted her, that she was imagining he wasn't dead.

"—I'm sorry, Festa."

In the next moment, Kitano's hoarse voice confirmed that it was not a hallucination. He saw the eyes of this usually cold girl fill with tears again, and he finally understood that her dependence and trust in him were deeper than he had imagined.

His remaining strength made it difficult for him to even speak, but he still hoped his apology could be successfully conveyed.

At least from her reaction now, he should have succeeded.

"...Did you hear that?"

"Hm?" Her sudden question made the relaxed Kitano freeze for a second. At that moment, her face, still streaked with tears, a mixture of sadness and resentment, forced itself back into its usual "I don't care" expression the moment she saw him awake.

But she still couldn't hide her inner turmoil. She lowered her head slightly, not daring to look him in the eye, and after a long while, said in a low voice:

"...Forget what I just said, got it?"

"...Gold Ship and the others are outside. I'll go tell them—I mean, they all went out. I'll go tell them you're not dead."

Saying this, before he could react, she left the room with her head down, pulling her knit cap low, unable to hide her belated embarrassment and her face, which was as hot as if it were on fire.

And without realizing it, a "shackle" in her heart was slowly unlocking... The "curse" of the Gold Family, just as she had hoped, was quietly breaking free.

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