“…You’re walking quite well?”
“Affirmative. Slow walking is possible.”
Eily’s condition had improved far more than I’d expected.
Clemens had told me that those naturally of a strong constitution absorbed the effects of enhancers much better.
Things had changed quite a bit from my initial expectations.
She might need only three months to return to a normal physical state.
It had taken me a year.
Of course, I hadn’t had enhancers or a doctor checking my condition every day.
Still, this gap was a bit much, wasn’t it?
Of course, we had no plans to continue the enhancers indefinitely.
Muscle enhancement. Regeneration enhancement. Dynamic visual acuity enhancement. Temporary stimulation.
The problem among these was the stimulation.
They say if you inject too many enhancers at once, you can even feel omnipotence.
Up the dosage and it’s practically a drug.
Because it stimulates the brain, it also slightly hinders the recovery of Eily’s frontal lobe.
Perhaps because of that, her brain’s recovery couldn’t keep up with her body’s recovery.
Her way of speaking was the same as ever, but since conversation was possible, it wasn’t a big deal.
Honestly, now that I’d gotten used to that way of talking, it seemed a bit cute.
While Eily held the railing to rest for a moment, Ian approached.
“Replaced the Core’s inertia control unit with the latest model.”
“The Southern Liberation Army has tech that state-of-the-art?”
“Stuff made in the South is sometimes better than the Empire’s.”
Clang, clang!
The sight of the crane-lifted Core settling and locking into the Titan was oddly fascinating.
It felt like watching heart surgery.
“Still, don’t go full throttle like usual.”
“I know.”
Even the inertia control unit has limits.
In Eily’s current physical condition, riding a Titan wasn’t exactly advisable.
She was in worse shape than I had been at the start of first year.
Still, I couldn’t bring myself to stop her.
“V. Am I okay?”
“You’re only coming along for the sake of persuasion, so don’t overdo it.”
“Negative. The otaku worries too much.”
Dragging a Titan along to have a peaceful conversation with an armed woman was a bad idea.
Even more so if the one riding it was an otaku who loved Titans and had a prosthetic on one leg.
A bright, pretty, sickly gyaru was much better than that.
But if I suggested going with Ran, she’d say she hated riding Titans, and Ian wasn’t even worth considering.
How was I supposed to bring someone along?
“I attached a respirator on Eily’s side, just in case.”
“A respirator?”
You can breathe just fine inside a Titan.
“To prevent hyperventilation. It’s not an oxygen respirator; it’s for controlling your breathing.”
They really had everything.
“It’ll suppress things a bit so you don’t faint from excessive acceleration.”
“Nice. When I was struggling, some equipment like this would’ve….”
“We had it.”
Wait a minute.
“Ian.”
“What.”
“If you had stuff like this, why didn’t you use it on me?”
“I installed it because I remembered you passing out. Didn’t think of it back then.”
Aha.
I’d almost gotten pissed.
The Core was installed and the hatch opened.
Eily quickly walked over and rapidly climbed inside.
Not that she was particularly fast despite hurrying.
“Are you excited?”
“Affirmative.”
“It’s not like you like Titans the way I do.”
“Reason. Doing what Deep likes together is good.”
Oh.
Ah.
Hm.
“Observation. Your ears have turned red.”
“They have not.”
“Interest. The otaku is cute. When I say such things, he turns red.”
“Stop it. Ian is right there.”
“You become more embarrassed when others watch.”
Ian scrunched up his expression.
“Ugh.”
And he just left.
I hadn’t even done anything; why was he looking at me like that?
“Eily, don’t do that in front of other people.”
“Because you’re embarrassed?”
Eily, this conversation isn’t ending.
I just clamped my mouth shut and climbed into the Core’s cockpit.
Ignoring how my face was a bit hot, this was my first time in a tandem system cockpit.
From the outside, it looked the same size as the existing Core, but the interior was spacious enough for two people.
Wait, no.
The Core was always meant for two people.
Only the method and orientation of entry differed.
Basically, Eily sat in the front and I sat in the back.
The rear cockpit was higher, giving a wider field of view.
With the space used for the Core reduced, the image sensor screen had become quite wide as well.
It wasn’t quite an omnidirectional monitor, but it was about half there.
The moment the hatch closed, a communication signal rang.
“Ah, and.”
It was Ian.
It was truly rare for Ian to initiate communication.
“Don’t ever let another engineer lay their hands on my Titan again.”
Since when is this your Titan?
“Yes.”
I didn’t have the guts to say that.
“Question. Why is this Ian’s Titan?”
I didn’t have it, but Eily did.
“I made it.”
“Is this not a mass-produced Northern Coalition Titan?”
“I repaired and customized it.”
“Perhaps in the North, but in the South, wasn’t it Kaya?”
“Talking back?”
“Theoretically, one could say that, but practically, it is not Ian’s Titan.”
“I can theoretically shove a wrench into your practical face. You think I can’t hit a patient with a wrench…?”
“Did you start getting angry because you have nothing left to say?”
“Ian!”
It was Ran.
After a few sounds of scuffling, it went quiet.
“Sorry! Ian is just absurdly sensitive about these things for no reason!”
‘I’m sorry. Our family dog is fierce.’
When it sounded like that, I couldn’t help but respond.
“It’s fine. It’s just Ian.”
‘It’s fine. It’s just a big dog.’
“What do you mean by that right now…?”
“Ian! Please stay still for a moment! Is your sortie preparation complete?”
I’d have to stay on my toes going there and back.
The aftermath probably wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
“Titan check. System all green.”
The destination was Dolores’s old house.
***
Beep-beep-beeep. Beeep. Beep-beep-beeep-beeep.
Every clan we encountered fell back naturally when we sent a light signal.
RIP.
It meant we were en route to pay our respects.
Even between clans, there were certain unspoken rules.
One of them was not to touch those who were mourning.
I wasn’t using it randomly; Robert had told me to use it.
“Uncomfortable. It feels as though we are lying.”
“I know, but it’s not like we’re completely wrong.”
We were going to Dolores’s house to look for traces, and if we found nothing, we would at least pay our respects.
Apparently, this path had originally been one that major clans took to Dolores’s old home to mourn her.
The unspoken rule was written in violence.
They say that after killing every clan that ambushed them while passing this road, an unspoken rule emerged that they wouldn’t attack if given a light signal.
In a way, they were like orcas.
Even though they themselves were in the position of attacking passersby.
Before talking about unspoken rules or whatever, shouldn’t they figure out how to live without harming others?
Ultimately, that was why clans got wiped out.
“According to the map, it should be around here.”
For some reason, the further we went, the closer we got to a cliff.
Was this really the right path?
I hoped we wouldn’t reach the end of the cliff only to have Titans suddenly jump out and attack us all at once.
“Deep, Deep. I see something ahead.”
“Ah, I see it.”
It was there.
A house.
At the edge of the jungle, near the precipice, all the trees had been cleared away, leaving exactly one house standing.
It was a house made of wood.
It was the first wooden house I’d seen since coming here.
Well, since everything around was wood, maybe that was obvious.
The clearing in front of the house looked like it had been made later.
Come to think of it, a clearing was obviously necessary.
They would have needed a place to put the Titans the clans brought.
“We’ll get off over there.”
“Acknowledged.”
I knelt the Titan down and opened the hatch.
I helped Eily down first using the Titan’s hand, then jumped down myself.
I raised my wrist.
Beep.
“Ran, we’re going inside the house.”
“The Titan will remain on standby in perimeter detection mode. We’ll contact you immediately if anything is detected.”
I ended the communication and reached out my hand to Eily.
Eily shook her head, then grabbed my shoulder instead.
“Holding hands makes walking difficult. Are you disappointed, by any chance?”
“Uh…, no.”
Honestly, I was disappointed, but if I said so here, it seemed like Eily would have a hard time.
“Is that so? I am disappointed.”
I hadn’t expected this.
“Let’s go for now.”
“Are you turning red again?”
I opened the front door.
The interior was much cleaner than I had expected.
There was no sign of habitation, but it didn’t feel abandoned.
It seemed like someone came by periodically to tidy up.
“Eily, the smartwatch had a scanning function, right?”
“Affirmative. It also has a function to search for nearby electronic devices.”
Eily slowly approached and hugged my arm tightly.
“E-Eily?”
“It has been a while since I have seen you stutter. Standing here is difficult. Must I hold on tight? Or, by any chance, are you becoming awkward?”
Ah, right.
This was originally the level of Eily’s remarks.
I suddenly felt a bit more at ease.
“Absolutely not, so sit on that sofa over there and rest.”
“Do you dislike my chest?”
“Now is not the time for that!”
“As expected, Deep likes chests.”
Eily immediately let go and sat on the sofa.
“Let’s start with the electronic device scan.”
Beep-beeep-beeep-beep.
Beep.
Nothing much was detected.
As expected, would I have to look around manually?
“Deep.”
“Yes?”
“Here, the sofa is a little strange. Something clicked.”
“It’s probably because it’s old.”
“It is not. You must come here.”
As I approached, Eily pushed firmly against the dresser placed beside the sofa.
“What are you doing?”
“I must look between the sofa and the dresser!”
The dresser was quite large.
Only after pulling it from behind did I barely manage to move it.
Honestly, I couldn’t even feel if Eily was pushing.
“Here, can you see there is a locking device on the sofa leg?”
“Isn’t it just fixed in place?”
Just as Eily said, there was a device.
“It is not. There is a keyhole here as well.”
It was real.
There was a keyhole.
When I tried to move the sofa by pulling it, it wouldn’t budge and made a clunking sound.
It wasn’t completely fixed.
It was clearly designed to move in a certain direction.
The keyhole’s position was also such that someone familiar could slip their hand beneath the dresser to insert the key.
“Here. It was under the dresser, but only this spot has no dust. Very suspicious.”
“We need to find the key first.”
If there was no key, I’d have to check if this house had a hammer or an axe.
Since this was the jungle, an axe might turn up if I looked.
Fortunately, the locking device was in the form of a padlock.
We could open it if we just broke that.
“Hmm.”
Eily pondered for a moment, then reached toward her back pocket.
“I have the master key the doctor gave me?”
“Doctor Clemens?”
“Negative. It is Doctor Kaya. She said just one shot would do.”
“One shot?”
Clack.
“Eily, wait a minute!”
Bang!
The locking device grazed my cheek and embedded itself in the ceiling.