"One-two-three-four, two-two-three-four..."
Dance class was the subject that made Kitasan Black want to give up on life the most. Although she wanted to just half-heartedly get through it like her other classes, watching the teacher manhandle students whose movents weren't up to standard—positioning them like mannequins—she had no choice but to show a little bit of her true ability.
"Hmm..."
The dance teacher stood in front of Kitasan Black, observing her for a long ti. The more she watched, the more satisfied she beca.
(This child's flexibility is quite good. I heard from the PE teacher that her body is also very strong—she can keep up even with high-intensity training, and she eats a lot too.)
As an Uma Musu Developnt Elentary School, the dance class naturally wasn't like what you'd find at an idol training facility.
Uma musu only needed to master basic dancing and singing.
As for the so-called "dance class," it was actually ant to train body flexibility and coordination.
If you really thought this was just a dance class, you'd be too naive.
"Very good. Miss Kitakami, have you studied dance before?"
"...A little."
Kitasan Black forced herself to lie.
She hadn't learned any of it at all—it was her senpais' "souls" controlling her body!
Although she did follow behind her old man's disciples every day, unlike the original studious "Kita-chan," she had only been watching from the sidelines. She had never actually practiced dancing with the senior disciples.
"Keep it up! Even if you can't beco a powerful uma musu, I have high hopes for you becoming an idol uma musu!"
The dance teacher said this with a beaming smile.
Idol uma musu—that was a type of uma musu who reached the world stage through an alternative path.
Not through ability, but through popularity rankings to step onto the GI track. So young uma musu without much talent but with big dreams would have such unrealistic fantasies. But in reality, becoming an idol uma musu wasn't that easy either.
"..."
Kitasan Black was left speechless by the teacher's encouragent.
Idol uma musu?
Sorry, but if I had to choose between the two, I'd rather be a racing uma musu.
"By the way, dance class currently doesn't have a class representative. The class rep position here is sowhat special. As you all know, in any dance troupe, there's a central figure—the center position!"
As the dance teacher said this, her gaze swept across the students.
"According to uma musu tradition, this position should be held by the race winner. But at our school's sports festival, the tradition is that the winning class performs together on stage. That requires soone who can command the stage as center, so when the ti cos, I'll have our class representative take this position."
Kitasan Black desperately wanted to retreat to the back of the group.
Continuing to stand at the front during this topic was dangerous.
But the problem was she couldn't retreat!
The positions in dance class were assigned by the teacher. Because she hadn't wanted the teacher to manhandle her body, she'd shown a bit of skill and had been "honored" with a spot in the front row.
Damn it!
I, Kitasan Black, have already survived the trials of academic and physical education classes. How could I possibly fall here?
"Sensei, who's going to be our class representative?"
"It hasn't been decided yet. But whoever performs best before the sports festival will beco the representative. Since you all want to debut as uma musu, you should treasure this opportunity. After all, even if you lose the race, the stage is equally capable of attracting attention."
Although the dance teacher didn't explicitly say this was a good opportunity to build popularity, the young ladies all understood the implication. Why did many ojou-samas already have enormous popularity before their debuts? Was it just because of their family's reputation? That was a big reason, but not the whole story.
Unless that family's ojou-sama was promoted by the family everywhere before her debut.
For example, that's exactly what happened with McQueen-senpai. Although she never attended school and was hoschooled with private tutors at the castle, the jiro family had already begun promoting the na "jiro McQueen" from when she was very young.
"The culmination of the jiro bloodline."
"The strongest genius in jiro family history."
So even though she had been secluded at ho before entering Tracen Academy, and outsiders didn't even know what jiro McQueen looked like, thanks to the jiro family's years of promotion, the newly debuted jiro McQueen already had overwhelming popularity. As for after her debut—that goes without saying.
Ordinary ojou-samas without this kind of support could only gradually accumulate popularity through normal channels.
The elentary school sports festival was the best opportunity.
Moreover, at sports festivals for prestigious schools like this, the attendees weren't just local residents—most were important figures in the industry and reporters from major newspapers. So if you could successfully showcase yourself at the sports festival and attract the audience's attention, you could gain quite a bit of following.
These followers would beco popularity points when debuting later.
The threshold for uma musu races was determined by popularity rankings.
Unlike real horses, where prize money mattered, for uma musu it was all about popularity.
In other words, even if an uma musu wasn't that strong, if fans really wanted to see her run in a race, the association would let that competitor participate. After all, that uma musu's popularity was real.
If you wanted to step onto GI-level races, having the ability was best. But if you didn't have the ability yet desperately wanted to witness that stage, the only remaining path was to beco an idol uma musu.
However, the idol uma musu path wasn't easy either.
No—you could even say it was more arduous.
In Kitasan Black's view, it might even be harder than being a skill-based uma musu.
After all, you had to look at what kind of people the current idol uma musu were.
The representative figure among traditional idol uma musu was Gold City.
Beautiful, both a model and an idol.
And she was also a powerful competitor in her identity as an uma musu.
The most outrageous thing was that this person could use Domain Expansion. She hadn't even mastered ZONE as an uma musu, but as an idol, she had mastered Domain Expansion—proof of a world-class powerhouse.
Then there was Haru Urara, also an idol uma musu. But Haru Urara beca an idol uma musu not because of her looks, nor her singing and dancing ability, but because of her indomitable spirit across a hundred battles. With her unyielding spirit and angelic healing smile, she had conquered audiences nationwide—a national-level idol uma musu.
Although Haru Urara hadn't mastered either type of domain.
But could that kind of spirit, that kind of career, be easily replicated?
Finally, perhaps only Curren's situation was sowhat imitable.
Because she took the influencer route.
But while the threshold for being an influencer was low, achieving what Curren had required both luck and skill. Curren was already a top-level national influencer, and she was a natural-born influencer prodigy—a genius who had learned to go online, take selfies, and manage her personal accounts since elentary school.
To debut as an idol uma musu, you'd need to reach at least close to Curren's level.
So, idol uma musu and whatnot...
Kitasan Black's response: Heh, whatever.
She'd rather take the proper uma musu debut route.
As for a certain Kiki-ko-senpai?
Unfortunately, although Kiki-ko had successfully beco famous as a million-follower-level idol uma musu in another world, in the uma musu world, Kiki-ko herself was still just a bottom-tier idol with under a thousand followers who couldn't even get passersby to stop during street performances.
Moreover, Kiki-ko-senpai was a very serious uma musu—being an idol uma musu was just a personal hobby.
So for those without ability, just dream about it. If the uma musu path didn't work out, the idol uma musu path probably wouldn't work either. Reality wasn't that simple.
Watching the students around her beco more serious about learning dance because of the teacher's words, Kitasan Black could only think these ojou-samas were still too young and naive.
The teacher was just dangling a carrot in front of them.
Rather than competing for this so-called center position, they'd be better off honestly practicing their running.
Kitasan Black was certain that when the sports festival ca, only students who perford well in the races would receive outside attention. As for the stage performance—unless you were so kind of natural-born world-class idol who could unleash Domain Expansion the mont you stepped on stage, you absolutely wouldn't attract any attention.
And from Kitasan Black's observations...
Powerful individuals like Satono Crown and Satono Diamond, while also studying dance class seriously, had a fairly indifferent attitude toward competing for the class representative and center positions.
Because they all clearly understood that what really mattered for uma musu was running ability.
Just like those idol uma musu ntioned earlier.
Were they famous?
Famous.
But could their influence compare to the Emperor, Mr. CB, and those people?
Of course not.
That's right—idol uma musu and whatnot were just consolation for losers.
The mont you decided to debut as an idol uma musu, you had essentially already beco a loser.
Just as Kitasan Black thought this, she suddenly noticed the dance teacher secretly observing her reactions.
(Wait, why is the teacher watching my reaction?)
Kitasan Black was completely puzzled.
Although her dance performance was decent, it was only decent—nowhere near the top few students.
After all, she hadn't fully displayed her senpais' abilities.
So even if the teacher appreciated her dancing skills, in this situation, the teacher wouldn't imdiately think of having her compete for the center position. Then why was the teacher secretly observing her?
In that instant, having realized sothing, cold sweat suddenly broke out on Kitasan Black's forehead.
Wait, what kind of place was this?
This was Uma Musu Developnt Elentary School!
Not an idol training facility—an uma musu training facility!
So why was the teacher dangling carrots about the idol uma musu path?
If this was an uma musu developnt school, shouldn't students be required to focus more on running practice for the sports festival? Why ntion this roundabout thod of using stage performances to attract attention?
The answer was obvious.
(This is a test!)
Realizing this, Kitasan Black broke into a cold sweat.
Because if this was a test, then her reaction just now was completely inappropriate.
She hadn't shown the slightest sign of being tempted by the teacher's carrot.
So what kind of image did she have in the teacher's eyes now?
(Crap, I overdid it!)
Even Satono Crown and Satono Diamond had shown a mont of wavering, but she hadn't!
Kitasan Black could only hope she was overthinking this.
Otherwise, she had a premonition that her future life would receive "special attention" from the teachers.
She was already receiving a lot of care from the teachers as a grass-roots student—if she attracted more attention now, wouldn't her slacking ti decrease even further?!
But her hopeful thinking was easily shattered by the PE teacher during physical education class.
"You all had your resolve shaken by that whole 'center position' thing in dance class, didn't you? Thinking that even if you can't outrun the stronger students at the sports festival, as long as you perform well on stage, you can still get attention. If any of you really think this way, I can only say you're too naive. Don't forget your purpose for attending school here—to beco uma musu, or even GI uma musu!
"But becoming an uma musu doesn't require attention or stage performances. The only thing a true uma musu needs to do is win races!
"Dancing, singing—even if you can't do any of that, as long as you're the winner, you could sing 'Two Tigers' on stage and it wouldn't matter. The audience will still find your performance entertaining because the winner's stage exists to showcase winners. Losers can only beco backup dancers at that mont!
"So everyone focus on training! Those who wavered earlier need to work even harder, because not only is your ability lacking, but your focus can't even match your classmates. If your ntality keeps slacking like this, then even if you've inherited prestigious bloodlines, you'll never beco a true uma musu in the future. And wanting to beco a glorious GI uma musu? Keep dreaming!"
Under the PE teacher's gaze, Kitasan Black and those students who had wavered earlier all felt their scalps go numb. Of course—she should have known. Could that squinty-eyed dance teacher really be a good person?!
At this mont, Kitasan Black still didn't know what had happened after the psychological counseling session. Otherwise, she would be in even worse condition right now. She couldn't understand why, as a transfer student who had gotten in through the back door, she was receiving so much attention from teachers. Was it just because she was a grass-roots uma musu?
Was it because there was no sense of achievent in educating ojou-samas from prestigious families, so they had finally encountered a grass-roots student and were now pushing her extra hard? These uma musu teachers were really too extre!
...
Get 20 chapters ahead on - P.a.t.r.e.o.n "RoseWhisky"
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