“Opening the hatch~!”
With a clank, the core hatch opened. As soon as I stepped outside, the first person I saw was Levan.
“You knew how to handle a heavy-armored type like that?”
I had already thought of an answer to that question. Ailey had asked me the same thing before, and it wasn’t as if I could start talking about my past life.
“Deep spars with Aaron every Friday, doesn’t he? Of course he’d know at least how a heavy-armored type should deal with a high-mobility type!”
Ailey answered for me.
I normally used a high-mobility type, and Aaron used a heavy-armored type. At the academy, it was fairly common to learn how to use other types of Titans through sparring.
“Ah, well. I guess that’s true?”
Levan nodded as if convinced and held out his hand. I took it and climbed out, and only belatedly, with another clank, White Bunny’s hatch opened.
“You!”
I couldn’t see her even when she called out.
White Bunny had a very low overall height. With hollow clangs, Karina hurriedly climbed up the stairs.
“Wh-what is White Bunny’s ov-overall height in meters?”
“13.8 meters.”
We were roughly 16 meters above the ground, so she was basically jumping up about one floor’s worth of height. And that was after operating a high-mobility Titan at full speed. Would she be okay?
Sure enough, once Karina came up, she grabbed the stair railing and panted, trying to catch her breath.
“You!”
There she goes again.
“Were you hiding your skills? Or have you been deceiving everyone all this time?”
“Deep spars with Aaron every Friday…”
“I didn’t ask the AI!”
Clang. Clang. Clang. Footsteps rang out.
Karina came right up in front of me and stared straight at me. Because of the bright lights inside the hangar, her sweat-soaked blue-silver hair shone dazzlingly.
I didn’t know whether it looked pretty or not. It hurt my eyes.
“You learned how to operate a heavy-armored type through sparring? That isn’t a level of skill that can be explained by something like that! Especially rotating using hovering—if you haven’t actually done it before, how on earth…”
“K-Karina? Please calm down first.”
“Do I look like I’m in any state to calm down, Rod?! Look at my White Bunny right now! There isn’t a single scratch on it, not one! Do you know how humiliating that is?!”
Ian quietly approached from behind me and muttered.
“Pathetic.”
“What?”
“Freaking pathetic.”
What, pathetic?
Ah, she was being pathetic.
Ian looked at Karina with an indifferent expression and muttered.
“And I don’t get it. Isn’t it good if your squad member is strong? I seriously don’t know.”
At those words, Karina froze. When Ian stared at her for a long while with his vivid blue eyes, Karina thought it over, then nodded.
“That isn’t entirely wrong.”
“Agreed…”
“Though it is merely the opinion of a commoner engineer, it isn’t wrong. The performance of that excellent machine. Surely it must be because the engineer’s skills are outstanding. Though at the end of the day, he is still a commoner engineer.”
Oh.
Ian’s mouth snapped shut. Ran, startled, quickly covered Ian’s mouth.
“Son of a…”
“I beg your pardon?”
“S-she says time is precious, so why don’t we hurry up and resume the meeting! Haha, ha!”
Even though Ran covered her mouth, I could hear her from this close.
I could hear, in vivid detail, the part where she said she’d smash her head in for daring to talk about an engineer like that.
The fact that Ian was more offended by the engineer-passing than being called a commoner was just like her.
After slowly taking a deep breath, Karina turned not to me, but to Levan.
“It was just as you said. He must have truly put up a good fight against Aaron Dyke, the third-ranked first-year.”
So she was going to ignore me until the very end.
Levan’s expression almost twisted slightly, but he smiled and nodded.
“He’s incredibly skilled.”
“I’ve sweated quite a bit, so let’s wash up first and gather again in the small conference room. Assembly will be in one hour.”
Karina caught her breath for a moment, then descended the stairs again. Allang glanced at me, then followed Karina.
Rod, who had been following behind, suddenly stopped and looked back.
“I saw it well. I’m not the type to trust rumors much, but you were a little different.”
“R-rumors?”
“There’s a rumor that you’ve only been losing all this time because you kept getting bad matchups.”
No, I’m pretty sure I just lost because I deserved to lose.
“Wh-who said that?”
“Guess you don’t check the academy community much? Someone using the nickname Ailey has been posting like crazy lately.”
My smartwatch vibrated briefly. When I silently looked down at the watch, the vibration quickly stopped.
“See you in an hour. And sorry for running my mouth earlier.”
I didn’t think he’d said anything bad enough to apologize for.
Rod patted my shoulder and went down the stairs. The moment he disappeared from view, I lifted my wrist.
“Ailey.”
“H-honestly, I don’t think it’s my fault! You told me to keep an eye on the academy site and community, didn’t you?”
“I asked you to keep an eye on them. Who told you to be active there?”
“I-I was watching, and it looked so fun! People should live doing what they want to do!”
But you’re not a person, Ailey.
The words I was about to say got stuck in my throat. I wondered if that would be too aggressive. As if Ailey had been waiting for this moment, she made the speaker buzz.
“And the post I wrote even made it to Best!”
“What? Who on earth would recommend a post like that…”
Thump.
Ian placed a hand on my shoulder and nodded.
“Upvoted.”
So it was you.
“Troll-upvoted.”
You son of a bitch.
***
The inside of the small conference room was silent.
Levan looked around anxiously. Allang wore a displeased expression, and Rod kept glancing at Karina.
Perhaps because her hair hadn’t completely dried after her shower, Karina’s blue-silver hair glittered especially brightly, making my eyes hurt.
“Good.”
I was pretty sure that was the least good “good” I’d ever heard in my life.
Karina seemed to know that herself, because she lowered her head for a moment, exhaled with a whoosh, and took a deep breath.
“Your decisiveness was remarkable. I never imagined you would switch Titans right before the spar. You knew I used a high-mobility type and changed to a heavy-armored type, which has an advantage in compatibility.”
“Yes.”
Karina rubbed her lips with her fingertips. It seemed like she was trying to hide the way her mouth had twisted.
“I understand very well that your judgment is excellent. It must be nice to be able to handle so many Titans.”
“Yes.”
Wow, what a cool loser.
“Now! Th-then.”
Levan clapped his hands in the air.
“Let’s discuss what we’ll do now! In any case, Deep maintaining constant alert status by himself is off the table, right?”
“Yes. Let’s do that.”
Tap. Karina’s fingertip fell onto the table. Only then did Allang and Rod raise their heads as well.
“Just because I lost doesn’t mean the squad leader has changed. I’d like you to remember that.”
Wow, she really is a cool loser. No, we can drop the cool part.
“Let’s begin the meeting. I don’t think there’s any particular need to explain Deep’s Titan or mine. So let’s hear explanations about the other cadets’ Titans.”
“I think mine will be the most important, so I’ll go first.”
Allang stretched one arm forward. His smartwatch projected a hologram.
“This is Arbiter, a support-type Titan. It specializes in detection and sensor disruption.”
When Allang lowered his hand, the other squad members quietly nodded. Just as I was about to nod as well, Rod lightly raised his hand.
“Rod. Mine is Heavy Machine, a bombardment-type Titan. As you can see…”
“You replaced both arms with main firepower weapons.”
At Karina’s reply, Rod nodded.
An ultra-high-firepower bombardment-type Titan with all gunports open, mainly used by baronial houses.
There were generally two reasons baronial houses used that form.
Either their ancestor had earned an enormous number of kill marks with a Titan of that form and received the title of baron.
Or they intended to earn many kill marks and somehow rise to the title of viscount.
“Baron Rose also obtained his baron title using the same form as yours, Rod. Did you inherit it?”
“I had mine newly made.”
“Excellent.”
If it was the former, then it was more than likable.
Lastly, Levan raised his wrist. The moment the hologram appeared, he pressed his lips together for a moment.
Dual-eye optical sensors glowing yellow. A French tricolor design painted over a white base.
The detailed design was quite different, but this was…
“It’s called Alex. It’s a heavy-armored type, and while it’s designed with close combat in mind, it’s armed with a designated marksman rifle, so long-range combat is also possible.”
No, well. Sure. A Titan with that kind of design could exist.
With a beep, the hologram turned off. As I turned my head, I met Levan’s eyes, and he gave a faint grin. Left with nothing to say for a moment, I looked back at Karina.
At the same time, Karina looked at me as well.
“Deep, I’d like you to use a heavy-armored type this time.”
“Yes.”
Then she looked slightly surprised.
“Truly?”
“You’re the s-squad leader, after all.”
Karina stared at me for a moment, then nodded as if satisfied.
“Hm, hmm, hm-hmm. That’s right. I am the squad leader. Although Deep defeated me in a spar, it was a spar that used the compatibility difference between machines, wasn’t it? Since he knows that himself, he will respect me as the squad leader.”
When I turned my head slightly, my eyes met Rod’s. Rod shook his head firmly as if telling me absolutely not to refute her. Thanks to that, I kept my mouth shut.
“Hm-hmm. Then shall we talk about the details of the operation? In fact, I had an operation in mind beforehand. That’s why I asked you to use a heavy-armored type.”
Look at that smug expression.
Freaking pathetic.