I'm in Teresin, dedicated to playing badly

It can be said that if Kitahara Shinji hadn't discovered it in time, even if someone had discovered Oguri Hat's problem later, the stunted growth caused by long-term lack of food would not have disappeared, thus affecting her talent as a racehorse girl.

In more serious cases, it could even leave her with chronic illnesses, causing her to prematurely pass away before she can fully realize her talents, leaving her to spend the rest of her life watching others run on the screen from her hospital bed.

Therefore, when she said that Shinji Kitahara saved her, it wasn't a joke, but a very serious expression of gratitude.

Moreover, after the treatment was completed, Shinji Kitahara, having learned the whole story, made a special visit to Oguri Hattori, stating that she did not have bulimia at all, and presented convincing evidence—bulimia patients don't eat as much as she does.

In short, the matter ended happily. Perhaps the only imperfection was that when Oguri Hat wanted to thank him afterwards, he found no one there.

She had actually been angry about it, but after learning about the eclipse, she immediately understood his predicament.

After all, she almost ate her family out of house and home after she was released, while Kitahara Shinji was just a child at the time and had to bear the burden of an even more terrifying solar eclipse. Just thinking about the bitterness in that situation is enough to bring tears to one's eyes.

"Actually, it's not that difficult. Eclipse is very sensible. If things really get tough, she'll take action, like anonymously participating in a competition, going hunting in the mountains, or picking wild vegetables and mushrooms..."

As Kitahara Shinji spoke, a piece of meat was stuffed into his mouth by Oguri Hat.

Perhaps it's because memories always make people relax without them realizing it, and when he came to his senses, he was already being fed by Oguri Hat.

Speaking of the solar eclipse, Oguri Hat thought for a moment, then picked up a piece of green vegetable and stuffed it over his shoulder before asking a question.

"Miss Eclipse has such a huge appetite, she should be very strong, right? Haven't you considered enrolling her in Treson?"

"I don't know if she's strong or not, but I do know she's definitely not weak, since I've never seen her lose."

He smacked the vegetables a few times before speaking.

"As for Treson, I did consider it, but she didn't want to come alone, so she didn't come until I agreed to be her trainer."

The hand holding the food paused slightly.

"Miss Eclipse has never lost? When did she start to become a true professional?"

"I don't know, she never said that."

"And her age?"

"She probably doesn't even know this herself. Anyway, when I found her, she looked like she was six years old, so I just assumed she was six, and she never objected."

"Why doesn't she train normally? I tried to invite her once, but she refused."

"I don't know either. I've never seen her train even once in my life—but maybe she'll secretly practice sometimes behind my back?"

"That's it."

After finishing their chat and their meal, Xiao Limao cleaned up the remaining food, then took out her textbooks from her schoolbag and began to review her lessons.

"Aren't you going back?" Shinji Kitahara asked.

“I’ve already told the dorm leader that I’ll be going back late, and since no one else is here right now, it won’t hurt for me to stay a little longer.”

"But I only have a minor injury to my arm, everything else is fine..."

"Patients just need to be taken care of. They just need to lie down and do their job. The rest can be left to others—that's what some people told me."

"......Fine."

Shinji Kitahara gave up the struggle.

If you replaced Oguri with someone else, such as the Emperor of the East Sea or Alice, he would definitely refuse to agree even if you beat him to death.

But looking at Oguri Hat's calm, clear eyes, devoid of any ulterior motives, and combined with her natural personality, even Kitahara Shinji, a severe case of paranoia caused by being persecuted by Umaru Musume, would find it difficult to be wary of her.

He feared the Emperor of the East Sea because he was afraid of being locked in a basement, and he resisted Alice because he didn't want to be used as a guinea pig.

But Little Chestnut Hat is different from the other two.

There was nothing dangerous about her, and she behaved normally in every way. Even her address was the very calm 'Trainer Kitahara,' and she never even called him by his name.

Furthermore, the two had worked together for several years, and Kitahara Shinji knew very well that this girl basically didn't have any thoughts other than eating. She was a very stable horse girl, and he trusted her quite a bit.

Furthermore, apart from feeding him today, there has been no intimate behavior between the two. Even this feeding was done because Oguri felt he was a patient and wanted to take care of him, which is all understandable.

Perhaps this is the most normal relationship between a trainer and a female horse?

After thinking it over, he came to this conclusion, and his expression gradually relaxed.

As he pondered, perhaps because he was full, or perhaps because the day's events had drained his energy, he felt a little sleepy.

Slowly closing his eyes, Shinji Kitahara's breathing gradually deepened amidst the soft scratching of the pen tip against the paper.

After his long, deep breathing became noticeable, the tip of Oguri Hat's pen slowly stopped moving.

She turned her head to look at that peaceful sleeping face. Her gray pupils trembled slightly. After gazing at it silently for a long time, her lips moved slightly, making an extremely faint sound.

Goodnight, Kitahara Trainer.

After saying that, she looked away and continued doing her homework.

Accompanied by the scratching sound of his pen, Shinji Kitahara fell peacefully asleep.

Chapter Twenty-Three: What brings you here too?

The next day, early in the morning.

Shinji Kitahara was awakened by the soft, wet touch on his hand.

As soon as he regained consciousness and his thoughts were not yet clear, he felt a wet and sticky sensation on his arm.

He was startled, thinking that his wound from yesterday hadn't healed properly and had reopened and was bleeding while he was sleeping, so he quickly opened his eyes.

Then he saw Little Chestnut Hat lying peacefully by his bedside, drooling over almost a sixth of his bed.

Kitahara Shinji: "..."

Because he went to bed early, he also woke up early. He checked his phone and it was only four in the morning.

After thinking for a moment, he didn't wake up Little Chestnut Hat. He took out a bottle of orange drink from the system, and after drinking it, his left arm was almost completely healed.

He got out of bed, found some tissues to wipe away the drool, then gently carried her back to bed, covered her with a blanket, and then sat down in a chair and took out his phone to look at it.

Because he made a deal with Alice yesterday, he wasn't worried about how to explain his recovery to others.

As for Oguri Hat, if it were the Emperor of the East Sea or Alice in Wonderland keeping him company in bed, he definitely wouldn't dare to do that.

However, Oguri Hat's demeanor was perhaps too calm, so Kitahara Shinji couldn't muster any wariness towards her. Instead, he felt a sense of healing and even had the thought that 'Horse Girl isn't all that scary after all'.

But he quickly banished the terrifying thought from his mind.

What a joke! To have such thoughts in Tressen is practically suicide.

Little Chestnut Hat is fine, this child basically has no other thoughts besides eating, and her personality is also quite innocent. Even if we develop a little more affection, there probably won't be any problems. At worst, we can just raise her as a daughter.

But the other horse girls are different; after all, the nickname "Tresen's Ogre Den" didn't come from nowhere.

Putting aside everything else, there's a guy next door to Yosuke Higashimori with a broken pelvis, that's a living example.

While it's not to say that Oguri Hat is the only safe horse girl in the academy, aside from her, Special Week, that lazy bum, is definitely not dangerous on his own, and there's also the hot-blooded idiot Twin Turbo, but those can only be considered a minority.

As mentioned before, racehorse girls have more energy than humans due to their physical attributes, and they are also in their adolescence.

Furthermore, since they are participating in a sport like running, which is full of competition and struggle, women tend to have greater emotional fluctuations and are more prone to impulsive actions compared to ordinary human women.

In such cases, no extreme conditions are needed; sometimes just a little stimulation is enough to ignite their emotions and trigger all sorts of unexpected events.

While the trainer is ostensibly their instructor, they are actually closer to being limiters.

Besides training, the trainer's main job is to help the racehorse girl under their care regulate her emotions.

In order to achieve this, one must establish an extremely deep emotional bond with the other person, and it is perfectly normal for them to eventually come together.

As for how Shinji Kitahara views this matter...

To be honest, although he always criticizes the absurd actions in Tresson, he can understand them.

He had even considered finding a horse girl to be his wife in the future, since he considered himself to have some talent as a trainer. Or, if Eclipse was willing after she came of age, it wouldn't be impossible for them to make do for the rest of their lives.

This is nothing surprising. After all, he is a normal adult male with normal emotions and desires, and there are no physiological problems. Naturally, he cannot be as celibate as a eunuch who has left home.

Just like when he sees Little Chestnut Hat on the bed with an expression like a baby sleeping, he would find her very cute and have a desire to reach out and pinch her cheeks.

But he only thought about it for a moment, without taking any action, and just sat quietly to the side looking at his phone until the sun slowly rose.

As the first rays of sunlight streamed through the window, Little Chestnut Hat slowly woke up. Opening her eyes, she looked at the unfamiliar ceiling in front of her, a hint of confusion flashing in her eyes.

Who is she? Where is she?

What about rice?

"woke up?"

Seeing that she was awake, Shinji Kitahara put down his phone and briefly told her what had just happened.

Oguri listened quietly without any change in expression, then blinked and looked at Kitahara Shinji's left arm.

"Trainer Kitahara, your arm..."

"Ah, this."

Shinji Kitahara shook his arm, which was almost fully healed, and his lips twitched.

"Yesterday, a woman in a white coat came here and gave me some medicine..."

"...Arisa?"

"Yes, she calls herself Alice."

"Oh, that's not surprising."

Oguri Hat nodded, easily accepting the fact.

Although Eliseko has a bad reputation among trainers, she is actually quite good among horse girls.

Although she caused quite a few incidents, the clients and beneficiaries of those incidents were basically the female chaperones. Most of the female chaperones didn't particularly like her, but at least they didn't dislike her either.

Although Oguri had never met Alice, he had at least heard of her.

"However, Trainer Kitahara, you'd better not have any more contact with her in the future. Also, most of her medicines have side effects, so you'd better be careful."

"Well, I see."

Shinji Kitahara nodded, then asked, "Didn't you say you were going back last night? Why did you stay?"

"I got so engrossed in reading that by the time I realized it, curfew had already passed, so I simply didn't go back..."

"Never mind..."

Shinji Kitahara sighed.

"Anyway, do you want to rest a little longer?"

"No, I'm hungry."

Little Hat got out of bed, quickly scratched his hair and ears, and after greeting the school doctor with Kitahara Shinji, headed to the cafeteria.

As soon as he left the school clinic, Shinji Kitahara noticed that the atmosphere inside Tressen was somewhat different from yesterday.

Although it seemed to look the same as before, Shinji Kitahara noticed that there were many more people on campus.

Among the passing horse girls, there are often one or two who seem to be strolling around, but in reality, their eyes are always scanning their surroundings, and there are also faint protrusions under their school uniforms, which means they are probably equipped with weapons.

Shinji Kitahara wasn't surprised. After all, he had already learned from the chairman yesterday that someone wanted to take action against Treson, and he had also been attacked. Therefore, it was only natural to increase security.

But why do I always feel like those people look at me much more often than they look at others...?

After breakfast, he took the chestnut hat he said he wanted to take a shower back to the dormitory. He went back and took a shower. Then, looking at the empty wardrobe, he thought about it and decided to wear the same clothes he wore yesterday.

Of course, he couldn't wear that cheap, tattered suit anymore, so he ended up leaving in his only remaining white shirt.

Because Xiao Lima had already informed others about his recovery through the group chat, by the time he arrived at the training ground, the entire team was already there and training.

Of course, except for solar eclipses.

He originally intended to continue his usual slacking off, but perhaps because of the attack he suffered yesterday, the extra attention he received today was particularly focused on him, with many eyes fixed on him intently.

Although Shinji Kitahara is thick-skinned, he can usually slack off openly despite the stares of those around him.

The problem is that before, the people looking at him were all his trainer colleagues and student horse girls, but now these gazes are probably coming from the chairman.

Even the most lazy person knows to put on a show when the boss comes to inspect; otherwise, it's not just a matter of work attitude.

Shinji Kitahara was just slacking off; he wasn't stupid, and of course he understood that.

So today, for the first time ever, he didn't take out his phone and slack off as soon as he arrived at the training ground. Instead, he called over Special Zhou and Little Chestnut Hat and prepared to give them some serious guidance on their training.

But a moment later, seeing the East Sea Emperor suddenly appear in front of him, holding a cup of honey drink and full of energy, Kitahara Shinji was stunned.