As Cyrielle was preparing for her show jumping competition, a girl was fuming in her room, shouting angrily at her brother.

  “How does it make sense ? She didn’t react at all, and somehow I am the bad guy ? She is ignoring her family and enjoys all the luxury she wants without sharing !”

  The boy was nodding energetically.

  “She clearly doesn’t deserve all the fame.”

  “I know, right ? But now my friends refuse to talk to me and the company I was going to do my apprenticeship with canceled ! Nobody wants to have anything to do with me, even though the bad guy is her, not me !”

  Her brother nodded again, a serious expression pstered on his face.

  “I don’t know how she persuaded everyone, but something is clearly wrong. It’s as if the entire country has been brainwashed or something.”

  “Yeah, and we can’t do anything about it. If I try something again, I might lose all hope of finding a job. We should y low for a while.”

  The boy pouted, but no matter how much he thought about it, he had no idea how to deal with this issue.

  “Just y low for a while. I’ll think of something with mom.”

  ***

  Even though they were at the stables, Julie was constantly on her phone, taking phone calls and writing in her notebook. She was the busiest person out there, since Cyrielle didn’t have any schedule except for horse riding nowadays, but Julie needed to stay in touch with Neytlix for the docuseries, and prepare for the production of the collection. She had also Coline to worry about, since the model’s popurity had soared after the runway, and she had secured deals with famous brands. To prevent a scandal like the panic attack’s one, she also needed to foster her retionship with journalists and reporters, so she was swamped in work.

  To the contrary, Cyrielle was peacefully riding the chestnut gelding she was going to compete with. The instructor was standing in the middle of the arena, papers and pen in hand.

  “Perfect. You control the speed perfectly while approaching a secluded obstacle, that was the st thing to control for the Galop 2. I’ll send the examination to the federation, you will have the diploma soon. Do you want to start with the examination for the Galp 3 ? We still have time.”

  “If you aren’t too busy, I would be grateful.”

  “Of course not, when you said you wanted to obtain the diplomas, I put aside the whole day ! The Rider Galop is the easiest to pass, but with it I’m sure you will have a lot more opportunities, be it in horse riding or in photoshoots or movies ! I heard you are acting in the new season of ‘Noble mayhem’ ?”

  Cyrielle inwardly flinched at the mention of the TV show, she was still persuaded that it was going to be a disaster.

  “Yes, but don’t watch it, it’s embarrassing.”

  The instructor ughed.

  “Don’t say that ! It’s not anyone else but you, so it’s a guaranteed hit ! My son always likes what you do and tells me all about your news and projects, I’m sure it will be good.”

  Cyrielle clenched her jaw in embarrassment, and quickly changed the subject.

  “What are the goals for Galop 3 ?”

  The instructor lost his smile and focused again, looking at the papers in his hands.

  “Let’s see… We can skip all the knowledge part, I can ask that ter. The grooming and hygiene of the stall are on point, I already checked when you were preparing Viroy earlier… Dressage choreography is already validated… Riding outside is done too… Ok, the st thing to do is bring the obstacles closer to each other and see how you manage. Then we’ll check your bance standing on the stirrups and while seated on the saddle, and end by checking if you can take your feet out of the stirrups and back in again while walking and trotting. If you manage all of that and answer the knowledge based questions correctly, you’ll also obtain your Galop 3 today !”

  Cyrielle noded. She had thought that the Galop 3 would be harder to obtain, since there are a total of 7 diplomas for the Rider specialization, so that would bring her almost to the midpoint of the course, but it seemed simple enough. Maybe she could go all the way to Galop 4 ?

  With that in mind, she turned to the instructor with an elegant smile.

  “Ask the questions while I ride, we will be able to save time.”

  The man opened his eyes wide, turning to Vincent who was filming the session as usual. The blonde cameraman answered by nodding energetically. He had heard too, and he had all of that on footage. The instructor swallowed his saliva and went to move the obstacles, bringing them closer together. Then he signaled Cyrielle to start while he was taking out his notes.

  “What are the different parts of the hoof ?”

  Cyrielle started walking her horse, taking her stirrups off and back on again, standing on them and sitting back on the saddle.

  “You have the toe, the quarter and the heel. Underneath, there is the sole circled by the white line and the hoof wall…”

  She continued to answer without stopping, bringing the gelding to a trot and repeating her actions. She even did the same when the horse was galloping, and never stopped answering the instructor's questions while she directed the chestnut gelding towards the obstacles. In less than ten minutes, she was almost done with all the Galop 3 programs, and approached the instructor to finish answering.

  The man was sweating profusely. He had proposed to start with the Galop 3 examination, but never guessed that it would be finished so easily. In total, it didn’t take 30 minutes for Cyrielle to obtain another diploma.

  “Do you… want to continue with Galop 4 ?”

  The instructor looked deranged, clearly not prepared for whatever was happening. But Cyrielle only saw one thing : One of her goals was to obtain 5 diplomas, and she was close to already attaining it.

  When she was finally back in the van with a pale Vincent and a confused Julie who didn’t watch the events unfold, she had already finished Galop 4 and was in the middle of reviewing materials on her phone for Galop 5.

  “Cyrielle… You really didn’t already have those diplomas, right ? You know, the federation can know and will refuse if you already passed those…”

  She took her eyes off her phone to turn to Julie and shook her head.

  “I didn’t go through the examination process, it was my first time. But it’s easier than expected.”

  Her friend sighed and leaned against her backrest, used to Cyrielle’s shenanigans by now.

  “If you say so, I believe you. But it’s great if you actually have diplomas to attest to your abilities, it gives me a better idea of your level. Until now I always thought you were good, but I didn’t know exactly how good. Galop 7 is the one you need to have to be an instructor, right ? And that man said that you definitely have the level to obtain it in less than a month, which means you are basically at the top of your field. I guess you are as good on a horse as you are at singing or designing ? I definitely need to make use of this…”

  Cyrielle shrugged. Julie was once again showing her sly and greedy smile, and there was no doubt that she was scheming something again, but Cyrielle didn’t care.

  ‘Did you see that ? I almost have five diplomas, I’ll reach yet another goal this year !’

  She felt warm affection but also a hint of annoyance from the system.

  [This was a goal that involved the ‘Studying’ ability. Using ‘Horse riding’ is cheating.]

  ‘Come on, don’t be moody ! Can’t you be happy for me ? I’ll just set up another goal after this one.’

  [You’ll write ‘Having 10 diplomas’, right ? But you’ll try to obtain the Galops in other specializations, so it won’t count either.]

  ‘So what ? I’ll just create another goal after that !’

  [You are only searching for satisfaction by checking boxes, it isn’t a real challenge.]

  Cyrielle got angry. Was it so bad to search for happiness and satisfaction ? Having diplomas was good, and she would have more opportunities that way. She was going to snap at the system when another blue chat bubble appeared.

  [Anyway, congratutions. It’s a good thing, you worked hard.]

  She stopped. Somehow, Path of Destiny always found the words to calm her down.

  ‘I’ll let it slide this time.’

  While she was inwardly smiling, Julie turned to her.

  “Are you ready for the competition tomorrow ? I’m a bit scared since it will be broadcasted live on your channel. What if you do badly ? It would be bad for your image… I mean, I understand how good you are, but ultimately it depends on the horse, right ? What if something happens ? It’s a dangerous sport, you could fall !”

  Cyrielle waved her hand, chasing away Julie’s worries with a smile.

  “Everything will be fine.”

  Her friend bit her lips.

  “Everytime you say something is fine, it turns out weird… Should I bring a doctor, just in case ?”