"...so whether a stallion's sheath needs to be cleaned still has to be analyzed based on the actual circumstances."
Awkwardly working the mouse, he finally got the slideshow to stop lagging and successfully reach its conclusion under the silver-haired old man's nervous gaze.
"As for the claim that breeding rates are related to cleaning frequency... at least based on the data obtained so far, it doesn't hold up."
At last, the old man declared the end of the lecture with a fit of hurried coughing.
Kitano exchanged business cards with the attendees as the task progress in front of him steadily rose.
At a lecture aimed at new stable hands and trainees aspiring to work in horse care, he had indeed met quite a few people.
[Make acquaintances with fifty people in the industry: 46/50]
Unfortunately, he still hadn't managed to complete the task in one go.
Still, the lecture had been well worth the trip.
Besides meeting many people in the field, Kitano had gained quite a lot from the lecture itself.
He had also completed a task involving ability training while he was at it.
"Thanks for the effort, Senior Shibata."
Tucking his notebook under his arm, he crossed to the front in a few strides.
"Ah, Kitano-kun—"
Shibata Ryuichiro raised his head, his throat producing a somewhat muffled sound.
"How about it? Want to consider coming over to my side? I can give you shares, you know."
After lifting the thermos beside him and taking several consecutive gulps, Shibata smiled and continued.
Among livestock veterinarians, whose average age exceeded sixty, young people like Kitano were quite rare.
That was precisely why he had agreed without hesitation when Kitano asked him to hold the lecture.
"At the very least, I'd have to wait until I've paid off the clinic's transfer fee."
Kitano smiled and shook his head as well.
"I'm afraid I won't live to see that day."
Shibata burst into laughter, though a trace of regret flashed through his eyes.
Soon afterward, he patted Kitano on the shoulder. "Come on, let's head back together."
Their two clinics were less than five kilometers apart.
For a town with a population of under five thousand, Niikappu Town was a little crowded with as many as seven practicing veterinarians.
Yet Kitano got along quite harmoniously with his peers.
It wasn't because he possessed any special charm, nor because he had exceptional emotional intelligence capable of dispelling others' hostility.
Aside from Shibata Ryuichiro, who was already half-retired, he was the only livestock veterinarian in town.
And even Shibata, his senior, was strictly speaking only a small-animal veterinarian with a specialization in equines.
As of Reiwa 4, even counting government-employed veterinarians, there were only a little over three thousand veterinary professionals in all of Hokkaido.
Of those, a pitifully small 252 worked in livestock animal care.
In other words, across Hokkaido's 83,460 square kilometers of land, each livestock veterinarian served an average area of over 300 square kilometers.
Outside Sapporo and Hakodate, the situation was even less optimistic.
From the first day his clinic opened, Kitano had lived a life of constant rushing about.
But a veterinarian's work could not be easily set aside.
It had been over a week since he acquired the system.
That very day, he had taken his bankbook to a convenience store in town.
Though there was a handling fee, using the convenience store ATM was far more convenient than going to a bank dozens or even hundreds of kilometers away.
An additional fifty thousand yen had appeared on the last page of his bankbook.
The sender's name was unknown.
While breathing a sigh of relief, Kitano vaguely realized that his finances would become even tighter in the future.
Becoming a central racing owner—though it was technically a beginner task, it was far from easy for him to accomplish.
Even registering as a joint owner required at least nine million yen in net personal income over the previous two years, as well as a ten million yen joint registration fee.
So, he planned to start as a local racing owner.
Quite a few tasks on the list could be completed even with the status of a local racing owner.
And the registration requirements for local racing owners were much simpler.
To pass the qualification review for an individual local racing owner, one's net personal income in recent years had to be at least five million yen.
That was an amount Kitano could meet with his current income.
But even for a local racing owner, the expenses were far from small.
Between the initial cost of purchasing horses and monthly boarding fees ranging from one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand yen, annual expenses would amount to at least around one million yen.
The income from daily tasks seemed even more important now.
Unfortunately, all of Monbetsu Racecourse's races this month were concentrated into just a few short days.
If he wanted to complete as many race-watching tasks as possible, he would most likely have to go to Obihiro, two hundred kilometers away.
As Hokkaido's only remaining ban'ei racecourse, it held quite a few ban'ei races.
Acquiring the system and then naturally lying flat, living a life free from worries about food and clothing from then on—
That sort of thing did not exist.
Whether local or central, racing associations paid particular attention to the annual qualification reviews of registered owners.
If they kept losing money, they could even have their owner qualifications revoked.
Prize money from races, along with temporary income such as stock sales and real estate gains, was not included in income calculations.
So light novels really were all lies.
Good things that came without effort could only be dreamed about.
After seeing Senior Shibata home, Kitano drove to his own clinic.
For what had originally been a small-animal clinic, an area of twelve tatami mats was somewhat cramped.
But Kitano had no such concerns at all.
When he worked, he usually encountered cases that required house calls.
The clinic was merely a sort of transit stop or rest point before his next call.
Of course, every now and then, some reckless person too lazy to check the Veterinary Medical Association's official website in advance would follow Google Maps directly here to treat a small animal's illness.
In those cases, Kitano was usually not at the clinic.
Unsurprisingly, his clinic had received a number-one ranking on many platforms' Niikappu Town veterinarian lists.
Counting from the bottom.
After taking off his suit jacket and changing into clothes more convenient for moving around, Kitano emerged from the break room carrying last month's issue of "Yushun."
A considerable portion of it introduced a racehorse named Victory Within Reach.
Among it, Kitano noticed fellow veterinarian Tanaka Tomoharu's evaluation of the horse's physique.
"A horse that can make such good use of its hind legs and hip muscles is quite rare... The movement that smoothly connects its hindquarters and forequarters should be what jockeys strive for... I see."
For a long time in the past, he had never paid attention to the principles behind how horses exerted force.
Many things were like that—time and again, he had brushed past knowledge without noticing it.
Upon receiving the notification that the task was complete, he put down the magazine in his hand.
Though it contained quite a bit of sensationalism and exaggeration, he could indeed draw much useful information from it.
There was also the reward for completing the task.
But before he had time to claim it, his phone began to ring.
"Hello, Niikappu Town Livestock Animal Clinic."
Two minutes later, the silver pickup sped away.
A heavy bag for house calls sat in the passenger seat.