The mediocre trainer doesn't want to reopen

"However, Sakura Shinou, who was highly expected, suffered a crushing defeat and finished eleventh."

"Ten, eleven..."

Even though they had prepared themselves mentally, when the commentator announced the result, all the horse racing girls of Team Kitano still felt distraught.

There were a total of twelve horse racing girls participating in this Japanese derby, and Jin Wang only won eleventh place this time, which could be said to be the worst result in her career.

Not only did it break her own undefeated streak, but the more troublesome thing was that she was pushed to the "altar" by everyone this time, which made the public feel disappointed.

Even the mentally prepared horse racing girls felt disappointed by this outcome, let alone the audience who had placed high hopes on Sakura Shinou. For a moment, with this result, many people hoped that Shinou, who had inherited Kusanagi Hi's will, could shine.

But now, this eleventh place result...cannot be considered a favorite to win the championship.

Although Sakura Shin-oh was very powerful at the beginning and could run the full half distance, he was really leading the whole field and left the horse racing girls behind him more than ten lengths behind, which really ignited the atmosphere of the whole field, and he had the momentum of being possessed by a silent Suzuka.

But after that, Sakura Shin-oh, who had passed the halfway point, lost momentum as if he had lost his energy. After the loss of momentum, the distance he had originally left behind was suddenly overtaken. After that, Sakura Shin-oh no longer had enough strength to sprint.

Even if Sakura Shinou hadn't suddenly gained some strength on the final straight, sprinting forward for a distance and catching up with the last horse girl by a small margin, she would probably have been the last one.

However, at this moment, Kitano didn't care about what others were thinking. His pupils dilated slightly, and he held the guardrail with both hands, staring at Sakura Shinou on the field.

At this time, the defeated Sakura Shinou turned his gaze to Kitano as soon as the game was over. At this moment, their eyes met in the air for a moment, and then they both couldn't help but smile faintly.

Kitano smiled, an encouraging smile mixed with some relief.

Prince Jin also smiled, out of the joy of receiving encouragement, and... the feeling that he had finally conveyed his beliefs.

Trainer-san... you must have gotten it by now, right? My growth, my changes.

Although... I cannot change my fate of failure, I can hold my head high as usual and accept my defeat more calmly, instead of leaving so lonely and sadly.

Even if I lose, I must face it calmly, just like... I must also calmly accept the real me.

"Lies" will eventually be exposed one day, and I... must thank Trainer Sang. In the end, you were still willing to tell me the real me.

I cannot escape my own shortcomings, but at least you give me the courage to face them.

So... I dare to step onto this field again, and I also have the courage to launch my own unwilling sprint.

I've really changed. I'm no longer...last one, Trainer-san.

Thinking of this, Sakura Jinwang suddenly felt a little sore in the corners of her eyes, but she still raised her head proudly, trying not to let her tears burst out at this time... Otherwise, the deepest secret hidden in her heart might be exposed.

But now is not the time for Sakura Jinwang to confess, she wants to wait a little longer.

"Everyone, please go now."

At this time, Kitano also suppressed his emotion. This time, Sakura Jinwang's sprint on the final straight was enough to make Kitano feel gratified. Seeing Jinwang's unwavering look, Kitano felt satisfied.

This was the best ending Kitano had never imagined before. He was not the last one, and Jin Wang did not doubt himself because of all this. This ending was the best result for both Kitano and Jin Wang.

In that case... it can be considered as correcting my past mistakes, right? Sure enough, letting this child realize all this as soon as possible is the best option.

Maybe I was really wrong back then, and this big web of "lies" should be closed.

As Kitano finished speaking, everyone on the team quickly began to perform their duties as planned. The Holy King and the Good Opera quickly ran towards Prince Sakura, with the East Sea Emperor leading the way, blocking the reporters from entering.

Kitano, along with Aldan and Rudolph, will wait for the interview session after the next game.

As for this segment, Kitano has experienced enough, and he can guess what the content of the next interview will be. In this kind of thing, as a trainer, he just needs to step in to withstand the pressure, and there is no need to bring this pressure to Jin Wang and the others.

On the field, Sheng Wang and Good Opera immediately came in front of Sakura Jin Wang. Sheng Wang grabbed Jin Wang's hand and said, "Sakura, no, it's okay. It's just a loss. I... I don't know how to comfort you, but it's better for us to leave now."

"I'm not sad, Sheng Wang." Jin Wang's performance was even calmer than Sheng Wang had expected. However, when he looked at Sheng Wang and Good Opera but didn't see Kitano, Jin Wang couldn't help but ask, "Where's the trainer?"

"He... went to stop the reporters." The Holy King thought for a moment and told the truth. He said a little anxiously, "He told us to take you away from the racecourse as soon as the race is over. It will be very troublesome if we are pestered by those reporters. Sakura, let's go first."

"As the grade chairperson, you can't leave now!"

Upon hearing this, Sakura Shinou's eyes lit up slightly, as if she was thinking about how Kitano would be harassed by the reporters after this match. Soon, her cherry blossom-shaped pink eyes once again transformed into her usual silly yet resolute expression, and she said very insistently, "At this time, as Trainer-san's horse girl, I should stand with my Trainer-san!"

"Seiou-san, please take me to Trainer-san!"

"Oh, you—" The Holy King was a little anxious at the moment, wanting to say that even if he went there, he wouldn't be able to help. As a horse girl who had served as Kitano's racing girl last episode and had faced the pressure of the media with Kitano, the Holy King knew very well how harsh those reporters were to those they dared to offend.

Having cameras and long guns is good enough, but some people ask all kinds of sharp questions to increase sales of magazines and newspapers, without caring about the mood and feelings of the person being asked. There are definitely quite a few such people in such occasions.

Kitano can face it alone, or rather, he let them take Sakura Shinou away just to prevent her from having to face these things. The Holy King Halo is very clear about this.

At this moment, the silent Good Opera suddenly patted the Holy King on the shoulder. A relaxed smile appeared on the Holy King's face. He chuckled and said, "Let her go. She is determined to face this. I think her performance in front of the reporters this time should be better than her performance on the field."

"Besides, we all want to help Her Royal Highness share some of the pressure, right? There are some things that can't be left to him alone."

Having said this, Good Opera also turned his gaze back to Sakura Shinou, with a little more trust and determination in his eyes, and said softly: "Go, Sakura-colored Violent Advancer, bring out your momentum again. This time, you will definitely not let everyone down again, right?"

"Yes! I'm going! Explosive!"

After getting the permission from Good Opera, Sakura Jinou couldn't wait to run in another direction. She was determined to bear all of this with her trainer Sang - last time, she failed to stand with him, letting him bear all the criticisms alone, and lost him forever.

This time, she will not lose again. She will stand with the person she wants to thank the most and never let him bear it all alone again!

Chapter 342: You dare to say that my trainer is mediocre?

"Trainer Kitano, may I ask what you think about Sakura Shinou's first defeat, a crushing one?"

"Well...after all, it's a distance I'm not familiar with. This was Jin Wang's first middle-distance race, on a stage as grand as the Japan Derby. His inexperience was evident in many ways. It was my negligence as the trainer, and I certainly won't shirk my responsibility for that."

At this moment, Kitano was surrounded by a group of reporters. He already had very good ways to deal with the sharp questions raised by these reporters without any fear of offending him.

——That is the traditional art, "Red Bean Paste Private Marseille".

In this situation, no matter how many reasons there are behind it, in the final analysis, everyone thinks it is your dereliction of duty as a trainer, so any explanation you give will be ineffective.

All you can do is apologize sincerely over and over again. Honestly, this method may seem perfunctory to outsiders, as if nothing more than an apology is involved. However, it has to be said that this "I've already apologized, what else do you want?" approach has always been very effective in Japan.

The biggest advantage is that by doing this, you don't need to explain to these journalist friends how you will solve the problem later. Otherwise, if the matter becomes too big, it may only become more and more troublesome in the future. There will be more people under the banner of "justice", but in fact there are more invisible eyes "urging" you to solve the problem. Especially when they are not professionals in this field and they point fingers at you, you will know the pain.

So at this time, just get scolded and then apologize. This matter is over and done with. Anyway, it’s not the first time that Kitano has been scolded so publicly, and he is used to it.

As for this, Rudolf and Aldan, who were standing by, although they came with Kitano this time, Kitano gave them the job of attracting the attention of the reporters and leading them to himself, and he did not ask them to come forward with him to explain.

After all...if it gets out that I'm standing with the eldest daughters of two big families, it will be easy for others to notice something wrong.

Although the two heads of the Mejiro family and the Yuzhi family were forced to marry their two precious granddaughters to him at the same time due to some helpless reasons - but that was just a tacit understanding between the two heads of the family after all, Kitano still knew what was important.

It is better not to let the outside world know about this kind of thing, so this time Kitano asked Aldan and Rudolph to stay away from him, and let him handle this kind of situation.

"Even so, letting Trainer-san face all this alone would be too isolating for Trainer-san."

Aldan, who was standing by, wanted to step forward several times to stop Kitano from being attacked by the reporters. She knew that Kitano had done nothing wrong in this matter, but the fact that he was being attacked even though it was not his fault and he could not say anything in rebuttal made it impossible for Aldan to ignore it.

Rudolph, however, had already stopped Aldan several times and said calmly, "This is the trainer's own decision. What we need to do is not to cause trouble for the trainer."

"Besides, if we go up now, we won't be able to remedy this chaotic situation, and it may even cause even greater chaos. So, we can only endure it."

But even if Rudolf said so, her irregular tapping of the ground with her toes clearly revealed her inner restlessness at the moment - for Aldan and Rudolf, who had memories of their previous life, every word of these reporters' words was like a thorn in their hearts, making them feel unbearable.

After all, in their memories, Kitano in the past was just like he is now. It was obvious that many mistakes were caused by his own reasons, but he had no way to express his grievances and could only endure so much criticism. This is something that those of them who are grateful for Kitano's contributions do not want to experience again.

Almost every Umamusume played by Kitano who has had similar feelings would feel extremely uncomfortable with this scene, let alone Rudolf and Aldan?

But now, they can only suppress their unhappiness, because they know that going up and scolding these reporters now will only cause more trouble, so they have no choice but to do this.

At this moment, the reporters' questions have not yet ended. Faced with Kitano who refused to respond to anything other than an apology, the reporters who wanted some big news had no idea where to start. But for the sake of sales, they had to ask more tricky questions.

"Then, Trainer Kitano, I have a very important question." A reporter immediately stepped forward and asked, "Regarding your recent statement that Sakura Shinou withdrew from the Classic Triple Crown competition from the outset to pave the way for your more valued Kusagami Hibiki, you labeled it a rumor at the time, but it's still prevalent today."

"There are even more people who believe that you are paving the way for Kusanagi Hibiki's undefeated triple crown, and that you are worried that the Sakura Shinou Association will have a huge impact on Kusanagi Hibiki at the Gaoyue Sho. What is your response to this?"

"No!"

However, before Kitano could respond to such nonsense, a familiar voice suddenly interrupted the interview from the side.

"Trainer-san didn't stop me from participating in the Triple Crown Classic! This was my own fault. I just couldn't participate!"

"King Jin?"

Kitano had never expected that Sakura Shin-Oh would actually come back. Behind Sakura Shin-Oh were not only the Holy King and Good Opera, but also the Emperor, Mi Yu, Bourbon, Shanxin, and Kusanagi Fei. They all saw Shin-Oh and wanted to stop her.

However, it was obvious that as a sprinter, Sakura Shinou's explosive power over short distances was truly unmatched by the other middle and long distance racers. In order to reach the scene as quickly as possible, Shinou exerted even more energy than she ever did during a competition, and quickly arrived.

When he saw Kitano surrounded by reporters and was asked those tricky questions, Sakura Shinou stood up immediately without thinking.

"Trainer-san, he saw from the beginning that I was only talented in short distance running, so he withdrew me from competing for the Classic Triple Crown!"

"Trainer-san has never pushed me. He's the best trainer-san and treats everyone on our team very well! He always trains us and arranges our schedules using the most suitable methods for us, and he never shows favoritism!"

As Sakura Shinou spoke, he squeezed out of the crowd and came to Kitano's side. At this moment, Kusagami Hi understood what he meant and followed Shinou to Kitano's side. He bowed deeply to the reporters and said, "I'm very sorry, but everyone, Sakura-san's decision to withdraw from the Classic Triple Crown competition is not as the rumors say. Sakura-san, I, and everyone on the team are all aware of the trainer's intentions behind this decision."

"Just like this Japanese Derby, this Japanese Derby is enough to prove that our trainer, San, is a very far-sighted person. He was not blinded by Sakura's temporary victory, but saw her advantage in being better at short-distance events. Therefore, he wanted her to develop in this direction and made this decision."

"Sakura-san's withdrawal from the Classic Triple Crown competition was a decision made after the entire team, including Sakura-san herself, agreed. It wasn't to pave the way for me, nor was it because of Trainer-san's favoritism."

The appearance of Cao Shangfei and Yinghua Jinwang made the interview, which had already become dull, suddenly reach a small climax. All of a sudden, many flashes flashed, capturing the scene of the two women.

Kitano hadn't expected them to come. Facing Prince Jin standing beside him, he couldn't help but ask anxiously, "Prince Jin, why are you here? Didn't I ask the Holy King and the Good Opera to take you away?"

"No, Trainer-san, I'm your responsible horse girl! Whether it's victory or failure, we must bear it together!"

Sakura Shinou's attitude was unusually tough, even to the point of being completely unreasonable, as if she wanted to help someone without caring about that person's feelings. This was Sakura Shinou's best tactic.

But now, her feigned ignorance left Kitano with no other choice. Facing the reporters' cameras, Kitano really didn't want them to face these things.

But now that they were all here, Kitano had no way to persuade them to go back, so he had to end the interview as soon as possible.

"Okay, I think we've finished asking all the questions from our journalist friends. Can we please leave now?"

"Last question!" At this moment, a reporter who had been sitting relatively far back in the queue also pointed the microphone at Kitano. He hadn't had time to squeeze to the front, so he hadn't asked several questions. As Kitano was about to leave, he couldn't hold back any longer and directly asked the question he wanted to ask the most: "Trainer Kitano, after Kusanagi Hi's injury and Sakura Shinou's 11th-place loss, you've been widely criticized as a 'mediocre trainer.' How do you feel about this?"

"..." Suddenly, when the reporter asked this question, the originally noisy interview scene suddenly became quiet for a moment, and the reporter also felt that the atmosphere was a little wrong. He subconsciously looked around, but found that his colleagues were all staring at him with an inexplicable look.

No, or rather, he was staring at the horse racing girls behind him.

"Excuse me, could you please repeat the question you asked earlier?"

Suddenly, I don’t know which horse racing girl spoke, and even though her tone was as gentle as a spring breeze, it made people feel as if they had suddenly fallen into a thousand-foot ice cave, which was chilling.

For a moment, all the horse racing girls of the Kitano team stared at the reporter friend, and at that moment, their empty eyes, forced smiles, and the emotion called "murderous intent" hidden beneath their expressions suddenly spread throughout the audience.

Chapter 343: The Horse Racing Girls Who Want to Protect Kitano

If there is anyone who can make all the horse girls in Kitano's team put aside their past grudges and turn their attention to the same cause, it is only Kitano.

Although Kitano often said that everyone in the team was important to him and that the team might not be able to survive without anyone, in fact, in the hearts of the team's horse racing girls, Kitano was the most important person in the team and could even be the reason for them to stay here.

Not to mention anything else, just Qingyun Tiankong and Cao Shangfei, after spending such a long time together, have already decided in their hearts that Kitano is their only trainer, and they will never leave Kitano's side. After enjoying the warmth around him, they would not even think about experiencing other trainers' teams... because that feeling will definitely not be better than staying with Kitano.

No matter how nice other people are to them, no matter how hard they try to please them, they will never have the same feeling as when they are with Kitano...that kind of relaxation, the comfort without any restraint, just like the security of home.

Besides the two girls, the rest of the team's horse racing girls were no exception. Each of them was incredibly attached to being by Kitano's side. Kitano took care of each of their emotions, trying his best to keep them from getting sad. Little did they know, their biggest fear was seeing Kitano sad.

Especially those horse racing girls who have memories of the past. Although they don’t say it, they are more afraid than anyone else that Kitano’s face will once again show an expression of sadness and regret.

That expression...will awaken their past memories, making them review their past mistakes over and over again, how Kitano tried his best to correct their mistakes, but they just went down the same path. That feeling, none of them wants to recall again.

And in this process, each of them knew very well how much criticism they had brought to Kitano because of their own "stupid behavior".

Therefore, in the hearts of these horse racing girls for whom Kitano once served as their trainer, there is almost an absolutely taboo word - that is, someone scolded Kitano and called him a "mediocre trainer" who is not worthy of them.

At this moment, when the reporter who was unaware of the truth inadvertently violated this taboo, he didn't think about why the air suddenly froze, just as he didn't know why the horse racing girls around him suddenly stared at him as if they wanted to kill him.

For the first time, good opera was completely devoid of smiles.

Miura Bourbon clenched his fists, an expression of anger appearing on his poker face.

Mi Yu lowered her head slightly, muttered something, and put her hand on the small bag at her waist.

Saint King Halo's pupils narrowed slightly, he gritted his teeth, and memorized the reporter's appearance and the license plate on his chest.

Aldan's face turned blue and purple, and he didn't even notice that his nails were digging into the flesh of his arm.

Besides them, the Emperor of the East Sea, Shanxin, Xingjiang, Cao Shangfei, and Jin Wang... all the horse racing girls in Kitano stared at the man with undisguised hostility. At this moment, even the reporter sensed that the atmosphere was amiss and subconsciously took a few steps back.

At this moment, a faint voice filled with suppressed anger came from behind him.

"Oh? Mr. Reporter, could you please repeat your question?"

At some point, after the reporter said this, Lu Duo, who could no longer bear it, took off her mask and sunglasses, revealing her true face and standing behind the reporters. At this moment, her face, which was filled with suppressed anger and a somewhat weird and ferocious expression, scared all the reporters present.

"Emperor? The symbol of Ludo?"

"Why is she here?"

"This farce must end, fellow journalists. Even as a bystander, as the student council president of Tresen College, I can no longer tolerate your so-called 'rumors'."