A night for breeders

"I'm very sorry. We still couldn't win in the end."

"That was a fine run, wasn't it? Besides, he looks pretty pleased with himself."

As he spoke, he pointed at the gray horse, who was proudly tossing his head after having his tack removed.

Ochiai followed his finger, his tense expression giving way to a helpless look.

Then, a moment later, he let out a gentle sigh.

"Congratulations on making it safely to retirement, Pegasus."

As he said it, the Jockey stroked the gray horse's head.

Pegasus had never been particularly fond of Ochiai, but this time, unusually, he did not resist his old partner's touch.

Just this once, all right? A few seconds later, Pegasus flicked his ears as if to say just that, then moved his head away.

"Well, goodbye."

After passing through the racecourse gates, we met up with Mr. Taniguchi and boarded the shuttle back to the hotel together.

Once we got off, everyone held a modest celebration in the hotel restaurant.

The sky over the city center gradually shifted from dark red to navy blue, before neon lights soon illuminated it again.

KAHATAREDOKI, or TASOGAREDOKI.

Written in kanji, they meant "the hour of 'who is that?'" and "the twilight hour," respectively, referring to that stretch of time when faces were difficult to make out and you had to ask to know who was approaching.

Though these days, people generally only wrote it as "twilight."

Come to think of it, the former sounded somewhat like Darley—

"Congratulations. Your horse ran an incredible race."

Outside the hotel's meeting room, Mr. Yan Zhu'an's voice brought my wandering thoughts straight back to my body.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with the French breeder, who had just completed an intercontinental journey, I pushed the door before me all the way