After claiming the glory of an undefeated Triple Crown, King Halo immediately headed for the Japan Cup, and the entire Japanese industry went completely wild.
Not long ago, Montjeu, who had just secured her invitation to race abroad, had decided to take part in this year's Japan Cup. Now King Halo, fresh off an undefeated Triple Crown, had decided to enter as well.
For racing fans, this was explosive. Japan's strongest against the world's number one. Without a doubt, it was a duel between two kings.
"This is way too amazing. I originally came to watch the Japan Cup for Montjeu, but now I'm even more excited. I just hope King Halo's results aren't all hype. I hope she can be a real opponent for Montjeu, so this race doesn't end up boring."
"I've watched King Halo's race footage. No joke, she's terrifying. It feels like she wins every time without even trying. The way she runs really reminds me of Dancing Brave from years ago."
"Speaking of which, didn't Montjeu receive guidance from Dancing Brave? Dancing Brave's team went to France before to coach the new generation."
"So does that mean they're from the same direct line?"
"No, I don't think they count as fellow disciples. King Halo doesn't seem to have been coached by Dancing Brave. You can check Goodbye Halo's life records. There are childhood photo albums of King Halo there, and only one empty-looking photo has Dancing Brave in it."
"...That feels kind of edible."
"Speaking of Dancing Brave, isn't she always working outside? She often doesn't come home for years. Don't tell me she's having an affair?"
"What's so strange about an umamusume having an affair?"
"You upstairs... wait, what?"
Dancing Brave only found these discussions amusing.
She did not take the netizens' jokes afterward to heart. Instead, she thought of one thing. She truly had never coached King Halo, while Montjeu was now her student. In other words, this was also, in a certain sense, a battle between parent and child.
Montjeu could not be counted entirely as her disciple, but in this race, Montjeu really could represent her in some way. Thinking about it like that made it rather exciting.
"My daughter, let me witness your strength."
Dancing Brave had no intention of going to see King Halo. Even though she was currently in Japan, she still chose to stay at the hotel with Montjeu. When Montjeu went to visit Tracen Academy, Dancing Brave did not go along, because she did not want her appearance to influence the upcoming race.
Besides, she truly did not know how to face King Halo right now.
While running all over the world to coach newcomers, she had never once coached her own biological daughter. Having done something like that, she was honestly a little afraid of being questioned by her daughter.
And when that moment came, she could hardly explain to King Halo that it was because her Trainer had misjudged her, and Dancing Brave had thought King Halo had no talent as an umamusume, so she had not coached her, right?
She felt that if she dared to answer like that, not only would she never receive her daughter's forgiveness, she might even provoke her wife and daughter into standing together against her. So she very carefully chose to run away.
Running away could not solve the problem, but it worked!
At the same time, King Halo brought her Trainer to meet her mother. When they met again this time, King Halo discovered that her mother no longer complained about her disobediently running off to Japan to study abroad.
Instead, she was quite interested in the Trainer, constantly probing him in roundabout ways. But after seeing that King Halo had no reaction, she lost that interest too, because she had already realized the two of them were not in that kind of relationship.
How strange. She had clearly heard that in Japan, pairings between umamusume and Trainers were quite popular. Why did her own daughter show no tendency in that direction at all?
Could it be that her daughter was actually like her, and compared to humans, preferred umamusume after all?
Faced with her mother's curiosity, King Halo remained completely unmoved.
Because she had no interest in that sort of thing.
Romance and the like would only hinder her from becoming stronger.
Moreover, after what had happened with Kitasan Black, King Halo was extremely careful about controlling the distance in her social relationships. With Special Week, Seiun Sky, and the others, she was only in a simple classmate relationship.
"Little Halo, what races do you plan to run next? The races here in Japan already have no difficulty for you, right? Why don't you come back to America with me, then run the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe next year?"
Since the romance topic would not go anywhere, King Halo's mother brought up transferring schools again. She truly wanted King Halo to go race in America. Not only would it help the family's business, more importantly, it would give her something perfect to show off to her friends.
"Let's talk about that after I finish this year's races."
King Halo did not resist the matter of transferring much. The key was the scenario-clear objective. After she achieved the undefeated Triple Crown, the progress bar had risen quite a lot in one go, reaching around ninety-nine percent. If running the Japan Cup and the Arima Kinen next allowed her to clear the scenario smoothly, then after that, transferring was fine. At that point, it would not matter.
"Good. Then focus on training and preparing. Your next race is the Japan Cup, right? I've seen that young girl named Montjeu. She really isn't simple. And she truly is your father's student."
Goodbye Halo grew a little angry as she said that. When she had wanted to find Dancing Brave and bring her home to help persuade their daughter, not only had that woman been impossible to find, she had run off to France to coach someone else's daughter.
"I understand."
When King Halo heard that Montjeu was the student of that cheap father of hers, the expression on her face did not change at all.
That was normal too.
It was genuinely difficult for her to feel much about this.
First, she was not familiar with the father she had in this life. Second, even if Dancing Brave was one of the ceiling-level powers of this world, that could not shake her mind. She was an existence from beyond the world. To the supposedly invincible Dancing Brave, she was the true enemy from beyond the heavens. Not to mention, Dancing Brave was not actually invincible under heaven.
Even as a ceiling-level powerhouse, Dancing Brave still had opponents in this world. After all, in the world of Uma Musume, quite a few incarnations of real horses from different timelines existed at the same time. In the real-horse world, they were legends who could never meet, but after reincarnating into this Uma Musume world, the possibility of competing on the same stage existed.
Therefore, Dancing Brave could only be called the world's strongest of her own generation, just like the current Montjeu. But to say Dancing Brave was an unrivaled existence from ancient times to the present, undefeated across the whole world, would be too exaggerated.
Dancing Brave at only that level was not enough to make her wary. Not to mention her opponent was not Dancing Brave herself, but Dancing Brave's student. There was even less reason for her to feel nervous.
Montjeu was strong?
Was that supposed to be difficult?
Facing White McQueen and the Demon King, King Halo could admit her own weakness. But what did Montjeu, a native of a story world, even count as? If she did not have the confidence to defeat an opponent at this level, what right did she have to chase after Mejiro McQueen and the others?
Montjeu. Since she dared to come, then let her be defeated.
King Halo's calm reaction surprised Goodbye Halo. She had originally thought her daughter's composure was an act. After all, she knew very well how much King Halo cared about victory and defeat in races. Facing such a heavyweight opponent this time, it should have been impossible for her not to feel nervous.
But King Halo really was calm.
It was as if she did not care about Montjeu as an opponent at all.
"You're that confident?"
Goodbye Halo smiled with interest.
"Then let me see how much you've grown in Japan."
She knew King Halo's strength.
She was not weak, but against Montjeu, she did not have certainty of victory.
As for the current King Halo, frankly, Goodbye Halo could no longer see through her. Even though she had not missed a single race since King Halo's debut, she completely could not understand her daughter's present strength.
Only one year.
Could someone really improve this much in only one year?
Goodbye Halo did not understand.
She even occasionally wondered whether she had never truly seen her daughter clearly. She wondered if her daughter had hidden her strength in front of her all along. But after recalling every little thing in her memories, she still denied that idea. She did not think her daughter was the kind of bad child with so many schemes.
In other words, King Halo really had grown in this one year to the point that even she could not see through her.
Time arrived at the day the Japan Cup opened.
Dancing Brave finally appeared.
Because if she wanted to watch the race live, she had to appear. She did not think her arrival could be hidden from Japan's Emperor.
And the moment Dancing Brave revealed her identity, she heard a voice full of energy behind her.
"Darling!"
Then disaster befell Dancing Brave.
Goodbye Halo grabbed Dancing Brave and dragged her away.
Symboli Rudolf had originally wanted to invite them to the VIP room, but in the end, she chose not to get involved in that family's affairs.
"The hope is not great, but my children, I hope you can create a miracle today."
Symboli Rudolf's mood was not as calm as she appeared on the surface. After all, Japan's current situation was actually rather delicate. The reason it could receive the world's attention was El Condor Pasa's performance in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but the more important reason was that Montjeu had specifically mentioned Japan in an interview.
That's right.
Japan's current glory was mostly because of the attention from Montjeu, the world's number one. If today's race disappointed Montjeu, then the light Montjeu had brought would vanish in an instant.
This was not the ending Symboli Rudolf had originally wanted in her plan, but who told them that El Condor Pasa, whom they had placed their hopes on, had lost?
So this Japan Cup was truly important.
But the opponent was Montjeu.
Symboli Rudolf did not hold much hope.
By instinct alone, she knew Montjeu was strong. Even if she personally took the field, she would have no certainty of victory. Then among Japan's current runners, was there truly anyone who could defeat Montjeu?
At first, she had hoped Montjeu might suffer from unfamiliar conditions in Japan, but she was disappointed. After this world's Montjeu became Dancing Brave's student, that world-class professional team had adjusted Montjeu's condition extremely well.
Forget unfamiliar conditions. She did not even have the lingering aftereffects of consecutive hard races. Montjeu was entering the Japan Cup at full strength.
So it was no wonder Symboli Rudolf felt this desperate.
She truly could not think of anyone who could defeat this Montjeu.
Special Week?
Don't joke.
She had decent potential, but only potential.
Silence Suzuka?
No. Setting aside whether the Japan Cup distance was her best distance, even at the distance she was best at, her strength and Montjeu's were not on the same level. She could not even make it a fifty-fifty matchup.
El Condor Pasa?
She had already challenged her!
King Halo?
Indeed, King Halo was currently Japan's strongest. But she was only Japan's strongest. Add to that the fatal weakness of her obvious restriction in running style. Perhaps her strength really was on the same level as Montjeu's, but looking at King Halo, who had only just taken the undefeated Triple Crown, her odds of victory were very slim.
Now, Symboli Rudolf could only hope for the appearance of a miracle. She hoped some runner could create a miracle today.
"Welcome, everyone, to the broadcast of this race. As you can see, the atmosphere at the venue is truly lively. Fans from all over the world have arrived on site. Today's race is an international GI event, the Japan Cup with the highest prize money. Next, let us look at today's lineup. It really is exaggerated. We can see that this Japan Cup has not only drawn Montjeu. The top three from the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe are all taking part as well. King Halo, who previously claimed the undefeated Triple Crown, and the highly popular Special Week and Silence Suzuka are also running. Everyone can imagine how fierce today's race will be."
The broadcast of this race was not only being streamed on Japanese platforms. It was being broadcast all over the world. Commentators from various countries were also providing commentary on their own programs.
It could be said that the Japan Cup, an international GI event, had finally become worthy of its status. In the past, the Japan Cup had always been a place where international runners came to collect prize money. Among international races, it was regarded as relatively low in difficulty.
Low difficulty and high prize money. That was the world's impression of the Japan Cup in the past. People jokingly called it a race that gave money away.
But in reality, the reason the Japan Cup's prize money had been set so high was also because the Symboli family had been working behind the scenes.
They longed too much to challenge the world.
They did not want to be left behind by it.
So even if they temporarily lacked strength, they would still use money to attract powerful umamusume to Japan to race. Only by facing these world-class powerhouses directly could Japan's umamusume broaden their horizons and become stronger.
And now, perhaps, it was time to reap the results.
It was just that the symbol represented by Montjeu was far too large.
When the Symboli family laid out this plan, they had never considered that a runner at Montjeu's level would come to run the Japan Cup. After all, once someone reached Montjeu's scale, the amount of prize money truly no longer mattered.
As the introductions of the runners ended, the popularity rankings came out too.
First in popularity: Montjeu.
Second in popularity: El Condor Pasa.
Third in popularity: King Halo.
Because she had run the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, El Condor Pasa, who had once lost to King Halo, successfully overtook her in the vote count this time. As for Montjeu's vote count, there was no need to say more. The full golden weight of the Arc was unquestionable.
On the other hand, King Halo, who had just claimed the undefeated Triple Crown, had only received third place in popularity. That truly was a first in Japanese history. After all, in this world's history, the only undefeated Triple Crown winners were Symboli Rudolf and King Halo.
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