I ended up staying at the Western Front base for about a day.
No, maybe two.
I received additional supplies as well.
The moment I entered the room, I used the device Ian had given me to scan every nook and cranny.
Fortunately, there were no special ventilation outlets that could release sleeping gas or poison gas, nor anything like cameras.
I had been suspicious, but it seemed I was wrong.
Charlotte hadn’t bothered asking us about this or that.
Things like why we were piloting a Coalition Titan.
Or why we had defected to the Coalition.
She didn’t even ask who Ailey was as she looked at her lying on the bed.
This seemed to be the way of a noble who had received a favor.
To repay the favor without asking anything.
That attitude actually left me bewildered.
There was something even more bewildering.
It took far more time than expected to find Professor Zieg’s contact information.
Charlotte said she would find out by tomorrow if possible.
So maybe we would have to stay for two days.
Given the position Professor Zieg held in the Empire, it was only natural.
Zieg Pride.
A noble who, though born a commoner, had earned the title of baron through outstanding skill.
A famous commander who had achieved tremendous military feats but refused promotion past captain in order to continue going to the battlefield.
Even when he received his barony, he had forty kill marks.
And not in a bombardment-type Titan, but with a heavy-armor-type Titan focused on close-quarters combat, he had racked up forty kill marks.
That was why the family name he received was Pride.
The pride of the Empire.
True to that name, his current kill marks numbered roughly three hundred.
The culture of engraving each kill mark one by one had nearly disappeared, but if there were still people who engraved kill marks, it could be attributed to Professor Zieg’s influence.
As the sole nemesis of Fafnir soaring through the skies, his Titan’s name was also Balmung.
He had every narrative necessary to become a celebrity, and in truth, he was likely being hounded by countless nobles of the Empire.
It was only natural that his contact information was hard to obtain.
If I were someone in that position, I wouldn’t give out my contact information to anyone except the Imperial Family.
“Hoo.”
Cut the crap.
Hypotheses are meaningless.
The process is also meaningless.
What matters is the result.
I washed up and collapsed onto the bed.
It had been a week since I’d last been in a bed.
The sheet in the core of an Empire-made Titan was soft and fluffy, quite nice.
But Coalition-made sheets were hard.
I couldn’t sleep as it was, and trying to force myself to sleep on hard sheets made it even harder.
My hand reached for a cigarette, then stopped.
I had smoked every single day for a week, so my body had grown accustomed to it.
I should quit.
This body hadn’t even inhaled nicotine except for the past week.
It wasn’t a long enough period to become addicted.
I could quit.
Then just one last cigarette before quitting, just one.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
My body shot up at the sound of knocking.
Whoa, shit.
I almost failed to quit.
I got up and opened the door, and Clemence poked their head in.
“How’s your condition?”
“What?”
“You were smoking continuously on the way here. I made those cigarettes. They contain a stimulant. I’m asking how your condition is since you kept smoking them.”
So Clemence had made them.
Well, it made sense for someone from the Luna family to make something related to stimulants.
Then were the cigarettes Simon smokes okay?
Did they come because there were spares?
“I’m not sure. I think I’m fine.”
Aside from craving cigarettes a bit, there was no major problem.
And even that was still at a tolerable level.
“You’re in a state where you’ve started using stimulants again after not using them for a long time. There are almost no cases like this, so no one knows what might happen. In a severe case, the brain damage you had before could worsen.”
Meaning I could become a stutterer again.
I had one more reason to quit.
“And it might be more addictive than nicotine.”
I had two more reasons to quit.
“Thanks for letting me know.”
I nodded and tried to close the door, but Clemence immediately grabbed it.
“One more thing.”
I was a little surprised.
“What is it?”
“There was also a suppressant here for core maintenance. I injected it into Ailey.”
Ailey.
If it was about Ailey, I needed to know.
“How is she?”
“She opened her eyes.”
I tried to open the door and go outside.
Clemence grabbed not the door, but my shoulder.
“She can’t speak yet, and she probably won’t remember even if you talk to her. She literally just opened her eyes. We don’t even know if she can hear. There’s no response to external stimuli whatsoever.”
“So?”
“I’m just telling you so you know. Still, it’s not like she’s a vegetable. She didn’t react when I spoke to her, but she might to someone close to her.”
She might react, or she might not.
It meant not to get my hopes up.
It didn’t matter.
I’ve been unfortunate countless times until now.
I’ve never wished for things to get better.
I just had to live with goals, not dreams or hope.
I just needed to see Ailey’s face.
Hoping for her to answer or react to me was merely hope.
I went down the stairs with Clemence.
Ailey wasn’t a critical patient.
There was no need for her to be hospitalized somewhere grand.
It was enough that she was in the infirmary on the first floor of the lodging.
When I opened the door, the military doctor roughly gestured to one side.
I drew back the curtain, pulled up a chair, and sat beside her.
It was Ailey.
She had something like tongs on her index finger, and an IV was inserted in her arm.
Her body hadn’t changed much.
Only the medical equipment attached to her had changed.
“The oxygen respirator is gone.”
“Her breathing had been recovering since we moved her.”
She was getting better.
None of the efforts until now had been in vain.
I had said the process wasn’t important.
But I couldn’t be that cold-hearted of a person.
“Should I step back?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I heard Clemence’s footsteps behind me.
Even though I’d said it didn’t matter, it seemed they had stepped back.
The footsteps stopped.
I bowed my head and held Ailey’s hand tightly.
It wasn’t cold, but perhaps because she hadn’t moved in a long time, it was slightly swollen.
Pink eyes.
Her exceptionally pale skin and bright golden hair made me wonder if she was albino.
Despite her physical condition, her skin was white and smooth.
I fiddled with her fingertips, then lowered my head.
“I wish I could hear an answer from you.”
I couldn’t live harboring hope.
Still, I could afford to hope for a moment.
“I like you.”
I had never said it directly even once.
Because I kept hearing people around me call her a machine, I had only denied it.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t one.
Even if Ailey were truly a machine and an AI, I would have liked her.
No, I had already liked her from the moment I thought that way.
A gyaru Titan who was kind to an otaku.
There was no way not to like her.
As expected, there was no answer.
I raised my head and looked into Ailey’s eyes.
Her still-beautiful pink eyes were looking at me.
“Huh?”
There was no way she could be looking at me.
My hands trembled.
Suddenly, my hands were drenched in sweat.
“Can you hear me?”
It was slow.
Ailey blinked once.
“Did you hear me?”
Ailey blinked again.
Fuck.
This wasn’t something I had held back all this time to say in an atmosphere like this.
Fuck.
I’m fucked.
No, that’s not the problem.
“Clemence!”
I dashed outside.
Doctor.
Help!
***
“The suppressant seems to be having quite a positive effect.”
Clemence nodded.
“Her vision still seems hazy, but her reaction to light is clear, and she recognizes people she already knows quite well. Her response to sound is also beyond imagination at this level. The recovery speed is fast.”
Ran heaved a deep sigh of relief.
Thanks to Clemence calling both Ran and Ian, the two were also present.
“Then if we inject a lot of suppressants, she’ll recover quickly, right?”
“No, if you inject too many suppressants, she’ll die.”
“Ah.”
Ran flinched.
It was true.
I knew it well, and Clemence would know it even better.
TB16 through TB20, who had been overdosed with stimulants, had all died, but TB1 through TB5, who had been overdosed with suppressants, had also all died.
New test subjects came in, died from overdose again, came in again, died again.
Anyway, overdose of anything was dangerous.
“Anyway, she responds to voices, but it’s a bit absurd that she ignored my words specifically and reacted to Deep first.”
Ahem.
Clemence cleared their throat once.
“If we keep administering sufficient amounts of suppressant and do rehabilitation, it’s certain she’ll be able to move again.”
She had improved, and she could improve further.
“How long will it take?”
“Eating is the first problem. At minimum, about six months. If we use the stockpiled medicine from the Luna family, we could reduce that significantly.”
Should I go clean them out once?
Crazy.
I’ve finally become a freeloader, too.
I wiped my face and took a deep breath.
As I inhaled deeply and exhaled, my shoulders sank down.
I had been incredibly tense.
I hadn’t realized I was this tense.
After that deep breath, I felt something out of place.
I felt like I’d forgotten something.
What was it?
As I was thinking for a moment, Ian’s smartwatch vibrated briefly.
Ian checked the hologram and immediately held his smartwatch out to me.
“Charlotte Keria.”
“Yes?”
It was a message.
“She says come to the commander’s office. I think she found the contact.”
Ah, right.
Professor Zieg.
I turned my head to look at Ailey.
I didn’t want to leave her side.
As I stared for a while, Ailey blinked once.
She hadn’t said anything, but I could understand her meaning.
“Do you know what she’s saying?”
“She’s asking why you’re wasting time here, telling you to hurry up and go.”
Ailey blinked again.
Unable to resist the urging, I quickly moved my feet.
Before I could even open the door to the commander’s office, it opened first.
“He’s definitely someone crazy about his student.”
Charlotte grinned.
“Excuse me?”
“Ah, I’m talking about Professor Zieg. I connected through Arang at the academy.”
Charlotte stepped back and gestured.
I sat in the chair as gestured, and Charlotte sat opposite me.
“I deliberately made it a bit provocative.”
“What did you say?”
“I said something like, ‘The Western Front holds the life and death of your student.’”
The effect must have been certain.
Though I wasn’t sure if it would be alright.
Charlotte tapped on the table.
A hologram unfolded, and one contact appeared in the window.
Zieg Pride.
“I just call him directly, right?”
Charlotte rubbed her hands together.
“Why are you nervous?”
“Any soldier respects a man called Zieg. I never thought I’d have to call such a famous person first.”
Charlotte raised her hand.
Before she could touch the hologram, a notification rang.
Zieg Pride.
It was a call from Professor Zieg.
“Huh.”
“Huh?”
I briefly met eyes with Charlotte.
Charlotte swallowed hard and pressed the communication button.
“This is Charlotte Keria, commander of the Western Front.”
“This is Zieg Pride.”
Hoo.
The sound of an exhale was heard.
“I’ll kill you.”
Uh.
This isn’t right.