Chapter 289: The Inaugural Champion
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 289: The Inaugural Champion
“Hah… hah…”
Slowly.
Miro breathed, very slowly.
Then.
“Fwah—!”
She exhaled the air that had been pooled deep in her abdomen.
As if a long-blocked passage had finally opened, she began to breathe raggedly.
Her head was spinning.
Her heart was pounding.
Her legs were trembling.
‘What… what just happened?’
She didn’t know.
But.
“Miro! Miro! Miro! Miro!”
Everyone in the stands was chanting Miro’s name. Every screen, no matter which one, showed only her.
As if she were the protagonist of the world.
She was bewildered.
The champion’s aura was nowhere to be seen; she just stared blankly around.
“Sis!”
“Mire?”
It wasn’t just Mire. Her other siblings, along with Karami and his companions, were in the stands right by the finish line.
They were definitely in the VIP room before we parted ways…
“Why is everyone here? Weren’t you watching from up there?”
“We came down because we were worried you wouldn’t hear us cheering!”
“I see. I thought I heard your voices.”
“How was it? Did you hear us cheering?”
“Did we help?”
“Did it give you strength?”
The little ones peppered her with questions.
Their clear eyes, a trait of horse beastkin, sparkled with anticipation, eager to hear if they had helped their big sister.
Miro shook off her exhaustion, placed her hands on her hips, and stood proudly.
“Of course! Thanks to you little ones, I was able to run without giving up, you know? If it weren’t for you, your big sis might have given up~”
“Really?”
“Really~”
“You hear that? She said we helped!”
Overjoyed, her siblings couldn’t stop smiling. They started bickering amongst themselves about who had cheered the loudest.
Finding it difficult to get a word in, Miro suddenly thought of Karami.
“Trainer! I got first place!”
“I see.”
“Such a plain reaction? I was expecting you to be super surprised. Aren't you happy I won?”
“How could I not be happy? However, my reaction wouldn’t have changed even if you had come in last.”
“Are you saying you had no expectations?”
“Please interpret it as me cheering for you, regardless of the results.”
“Just kidding~”
She already knew.
He wouldn’t have scolded her for doing poorly. Even if she had really come in last, he would have greeted her with a smile just like this.
Because that’s the kind of person he was.
“How was it? Did you have fun running?”
“…Yeah, very much so.”
Miro said, her expression one of relief.
I’m glad I tried, she thought.
I’m glad I didn’t give up.
I’m glad I ran to the very end.
The heat of the race hadn’t faded. Her body trembled slightly with adrenaline, and a residual warmth remained.
She felt a similar sensation to when she flew through the sky on Skadia’s back.
It was incredibly cool and refreshing.
“Oh, right! Your advice was a huge help, Master! And Mirabelle’s too! It’s all thanks to you two!”
“Hehe, it wasn’t that much. You’re the one who worked hard, Miro.”
“No, really! It felt like I was actually flying. I thought I’d grown wings or something!”
“……?”
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
“No, it’s just…”
Just then, her siblings, having concluded their heated debate with the verdict that ‘everyone helped equally,’ chimed in.
“Sis, what are those wings?”
“Wings?”
“They’re so pretty… Sis, were you an angel?”
“Hehe, this big sis might be as kind as an angel, but I don’t have wings.”
“Then what’s that on your back?”
“My back?”
Miro craned her neck to check her back.
Her smooth back, where her shoulder blades should have been, was covered in pure white feathers.
“Wh-what is this? Th-they’re wings!”
Seeing Miro make such a fuss, Mirabelle let out a dry laugh.
“You mean you ran without even knowing?”
“You don’t normally expect a horse to grow wings, you know. I just thought it was my imagination. But they’re really here…”
Miro tugged at the wings.
She wondered if someone had attached them, but they were perfectly fused to her back. She could even move them at will.
They were unmistakably her wings.
She had run thinking, Wouldn’t it feel like this if I had wings? but she had actually been running with real wings the whole time.
“Why did they appear?”
“The commentator said it earlier! You’re a Pegasus!”
“A Pegasus? Like the one from the myths?”
“Yeah!”
“Me?”
“Yeah!!”
“But why, really.”
As far as Miro knew, her parents were ordinary horse beastkin. So were her grandparents.
“It has nothing to do with your bloodline.”
“The fortune-telling grandma?”
Yuhwa, having read Miro’s thoughts from her expression, began to explain.
“You were simply born with such a destiny. Of course, whether you transformed into a Heavenly Horse was up to you.”
Heukbi, who had been listening quietly from the side, added, “Lady Yuhwa, in this day and age, they don’t call it a Heavenly Horse. They call it a Pegasus.”
“Pegasus?”
“Pegasus.”
“Hah, kids these days use words I can’t understand. Heavenly Horse. Isn’t that so much more concise and better?”
Miro let the old woman’s characteristic grumbling go in one ear and out the other.
“So these wings are why my back has been hurting all this time?”
Well, it would be impossible for it not to hurt with such large wings growing inside.
Now she understood why Elize and Mirabelle said it wasn’t an illness, and why it couldn’t be cured.
Because it literally wasn’t an illness.
“You should have come out sooner. Making me worry for nothing.”
The wings twitched as if in response to Miro’s chiding.
Then a thought occurred to her.
“So, did you and my trainer know I was a Pegasus?”
“I think everyone knew except you, Miro.”
Anyone who could sense energy knew that wings were wriggling in Miro’s back, about to burst out.
It wasn’t without signs; they were on the verge of emerging. They were wings that would have sprouted at any time, given the right trigger.
Above all, her soul was mixed with that of a Pegasus.
Miro pouted at the fact that she was the only one who didn’t know.
“You’re all so mean! If you’d just told me from the beginning, I wouldn’t have had to worry so much!”
“I was the one who said not to tell her,” Karami said. “It would be meaningless if we just told you directly. The most we could do was give you a push. The rest was something you had to overcome yourself.”
“Hmph~ So you all just left me out. That’s cheap.”
Miro booed, openly showing she was sulking. It would probably take quite an effort to cheer her up.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Miro looked up at the sky. The rain had stopped, and the dark clouds were disappearing.
Sunlight shone down from above.
“The rain stopped?”
“So it has.”
“It should have stopped a little earlier.”
She had tried so hard to go even a little bit faster, yet everything else was a step behind.
“No, maybe I was the one who was too fast?”
Miro thought, grinning to herself.
Having dropped out of the academy, she was the equivalent of a high school girl on Earth—an age where even falling leaves are amusing.
It was a level of energy others found hard to keep up with.
—And so, the three-month journey comes to a close. It was a race where we couldn’t take our eyes off the track for a single moment, a race where we couldn’t predict what would happen next. Please give a hearty round of applause to all the racers who worked so hard to show us such a magnificent competition.
The crowd applauded.
Miro also clapped along with her siblings.
Just then, the announcer’s tone grew more excited.
—But among them, there is one racer who especially deserves praise! And that is Miro!
“Huh? Me?”
The camera focused on Miro. A solo shot.
—Miro, a girl born to a truly tragic fate. Having lost her parents at a young age, she became the head of her household, caring for her four younger siblings while never missing a day of practice at the academy—
The announcer suddenly began reciting Miro’s life story.
“W-wait a minute! That’s my private life!”
—For the sake of her younger siblings, she chose the path of selling herself into slavery and was forced to leave the track. But even as a slave, she could not stop her instinct to run!
Unable to listen any longer, Miro closed her eyes and covered her ears.
—Always missing victory by a hair’s breadth, Miro never broke despite repeated setbacks. Her indomitable will created a miracle. It’s as if she’s telling us, ‘Never give up, no matter what.’
“I never said that…”
Regardless of what Miro said, the announcer shouted with excitement.
—Having overcome all that adversity and hardship, she has proudly risen to the position of the world’s strongest! Please give a huge cheer and round of applause for the inaugural champion, Miro!
“Waaaaaah!”
“Miro! Miro! Miro! Miro!”
A deafening roar of cheers and applause erupted.
All of it was for Miro alone.
“Miro! Congratulations!”
“Lua?”
“I can’t believe our weak little Miro has grown so much. As your senior, I’m just so moved to see my hopeless junior succeed.”
Lua Swift said, her eyes even welling up with tears.
They didn’t seem fake.
It looked like she was genuinely congratulating Miro on her victory.
“Senior, didn’t you hate me?”
“What?! Hate you? I adore you, Miro. How could I hate such a weak and helpless junior? I have to look after you.”
Lua chasing Miro, following her in races, and talking to her—surprisingly, it wasn’t to bully her, but because she genuinely liked her.
She just had a screw loose, so it didn’t seem that way.
The award ceremony soon followed.
First place was Miro.
Second was Scarlett.
Third was Iris.
The three on the podium were given their awards. Miro, the champion, even received a trophy.
Once the award ceremony was over, the spectators began to leave one by one, still talking about the thrilling scenes from the race.
“I won’t lose next time.”
Scarlett didn’t forget to say a word to Miro before leaving.
It was a statement she could only make because she didn’t know she’d have to dance from the next competition onward.
“Let’s return to the merchant group as well.”
“Shouldn’t we go back and have a party to celebrate the win?”
“A party. That doesn’t sound bad.”
“That’s a bit much…”
“What’s so much about it? If you worked hard, you deserve at least that much.”
Alfia was simply excited at the thought of having fun.
“It’s a shame I only got third place. Well, I suppose third isn’t a bad result, is it? Especially since someone did worse.”
“Why is she looking at Rin when she says that? Is she saying it for Rin to hear?”
“Oh my, you’re being paranoid.”
Elize and Rin’s war of nerves continued all the way back to the merchant group’s base.