“R-Ran?”
“I don’t think it’s an error! The other operators were notified at the same time. It says to evacuate to the nearest temporary hangar, along with its coordinates!”
Not a suspension of training, but the end of training.
Not a break during training, but an evacuation during training.
Was there an event like this in the original? How dangerous could it be?
There was no point in wondering about that. This was already reality, and even if there had been an event like this in the original, I wouldn’t know.
Two voices came through the comm channel at the same time.
“Everyone should have received the coordinates through your operators, correct?”
“The exam is over. Evacuate quickly.”
Karina and Senior Ayla were the first to disarm, then began moving while dragging the fallen Titans nearby.
In the distance, Revan also started moving, looking none too flustered.
Kaiser, who had been looking around, rested his greatsword on his shoulder.
“I’ll take a look around for safety—”
“You may not.”
Icarus stopped Kaiser.
No, I should say Aaron stopped Princess Saya.
“You saw the announcement, didn’t you? This is an evacuation. We don’t know who the enemy is, but there’s a high chance they’re targeting Your Highness. I can’t allow you to act alone, nor will I let you act with us. You must evacuate.”
“I’m strong.”
“Even with one arm missing?”
“…You were never a man who spoke so decisively.”
“I am only like this with you, Your Highness.”
Princess Saya clicked her tongue and began moving toward the hangar coordinates. Icarus glanced at me with its mono-eye, then followed Kaiser just like that.
This is so unfair I can’t live.
“It’s so sweet my teeth are going to rot.”
“They know Deep can hear them, and they’re still doing that, right?”
“They probably don’t even realize they’re flirting with each other.”
“If I get engaged or start dating, I’m not going to flirt in such a half-baked way. If I’m going to do it, I’ll do it properly. Right?”
But you’re an AI, Ailey.
I swallowed the words I was about to say and pressed the pedal to accelerate.
Ailey probably knew that too.
***
“H-How did Your Highness use k-kicks?”
“I saw them in a video. Someone named Ailey uploaded it to the academy community. Do you know her?”
Ailey, please.
When I didn’t say anything, the princess looked puzzled for a moment, then left. Ian approached in her place.
He had one hand pressed to his forehead. His expression didn’t look good.
“Is it serious?”
“Right shoulder joint destroyed. Waist joint overloaded. Thruster fuel pipe damaged. And other miscellaneous issues. Need a summary?”
“Yes.”
“It’s crippled. At the very least, combat is impossible.”
His tone was extremely firm.
Sure enough, now that I’d gotten out and was looking at it objectively, its condition was a complete mess. I couldn’t excuse it by saying it was because I couldn’t beat Kaiser in close combat.
I had pushed the machine far too hard.
But it had been worth it. If I’d held out just five more minutes, I definitely would have won.
“Revan, how the hell can you move like that? I thought you were a high-mobility type.”
Revan laughed at the question from one of the Zeus Squad pilots. There was supposedly an intruder, yet he wasn’t even nervous?
Even as that thought crossed my mind, considering Revan’s skill, I found myself understanding. With skill like that, there was no way he would be nervous.
Behind Revan, I could see three Titans with their heads smashed in. All of them belonged to Zeus Squad. And all of their heads had been smashed by Revan.
“You probably would’ve won even if you’d fought all three by yourself.”
Aaron, who was watching the battle footage, muttered in disbelief.
It wasn’t empty praise. All three opponents were among the most skilled first-years. But Revan had easily smashed the heads of all three machines with movements comparable to a high-mobility type.
From the start, his Titan was probably closer to a hybrid of a high-mobility type and a heavy-armor type. In the sense that he moved like a high-mobility type with a heavy-armor type, he was similar to me.
The major difference between us was that Revan moved as if he knew how his opponents would act.
It felt like watching someone who had lived on the battlefield for years, or a true veteran who had completely mastered the game.
To aim for top rank, did you have to be able to take on three people in the short time Aaron and I held out against the princess? Was that even possible through luck?
“Well, I guess I was lucky.”
What an obnoxious thing to say.
It was impossible to become the top student through luck. There had to be something inevitable about it somewhere.
Maybe.
Maybe it was because Revan was the protagonist of this story. If I wasn’t the protagonist, and Revan was, then the reason he was such an outstanding pilot made a certain amount of sense.
No, there was no reason to think of it like a game. I didn’t know the story anyway, and this was reality. If I was living in it, then that made it reality.
Revan kept talking with the other pilots, the two children of baron houses discussed each other’s firepower, and over there, operators and engineers moved about busily.
The only quiet one was Allang. When I went around behind him, I saw that he was controlling drones with his smartwatch and checking the surroundings.
As I approached, Allang glanced at me, then looked back at the screen. If he wanted to ignore me, I was grateful. I had been planning to talk to Ailey anyway.
“Ailey, are there any further announcements?”
“Nope! No announcements. Want me to tell you the exact state of the machine’s damage and the causes instead?”
“Please.”
“The right shoulder was damaged by Kaiser’s greatsword, and the waist joint was overloaded when you twisted to dodge the greatsword! As for the thruster, you kept switching it on and off in succession, so it couldn’t take it and the pipe got damaged!”
“How is it overall?”
“Pretty much like Ian said, right? It can only handle ordinary movement. The thruster pipe is damaged, so quite a lot of fuel leaked out. If you’d kept fighting, it might have exploded?”
I almost died. I had no idea.
It had been a long time since I used a heavy-armor type, and it seemed I’d pushed it too hard.
Its essence was heavy-armor, but its movements had been almost closer to those of a high-mobility type. If the external armor interlocked incorrectly, it often caused damage on its own.
The waist damage and pipe damage were entirely my fault.
As I remained silent for a moment, Ailey quickly spoke up.
“More importantly, don’t you think this is seriously weird? An intruder at Bethesda Academy? Does that make any sense?”
“I don’t know.”
I didn’t know exactly how tight Bethesda Academy’s security was, but it was only natural that a strict radar network would be spread across the surface.
If there was any way to bypass the radar, it would probably be by digging a tunnel underground.
There was no way they had flown in. If it was a flight transport unit large enough to carry a Titan, it would inevitably be caught on radar.
“Couldn’t a Titan fly here directly?”
“There aren’t any Titans capable of that kind of flight.”
By the standards of Titan Core 1, there were still no Titans capable of aerial maneuvering superior to hovering.
That was why a Titan’s combat space was limited to the ground, and why the strategy of seizing high altitude and fighting from there was effective.
“No, there is one.”
That was only according to me, who had played the first installment and nothing more.
“What?”
Allang closed the hologram screen and turned his head.
“There is one. It’s just not well known because it isn’t an Imperial Titan. It’s a Titan of the Alliance, the Empire’s enemy. Aaron would know it well.”
“There is?”
“Think about it. My drones can fly freely too. If you can load one with far more fuel and thrusters, it’s not impossible.”
“The Evil Dragon of the Eastern Front. Baron Zeke’s archenemy. And Grand Duke Dyke’s nightmare. There is one Titan called by names like those.”
Perhaps he had heard his name being mentioned, because Aaron was standing in front of us before I knew it. Revan, who had approached with him, looked at me with a subtle expression.
“If it’s such an important asset, wouldn’t it be in the east? Like Deep said earlier, maybe they came in underground?”
“It’s hard to be certain. The Empire has often employed aggressive strategies that were basically gambles. There’s no law saying the inferior Alliance wouldn’t do the same.”
“No, I’m telling you, there’s no way that’s really the case. Deep, you think so too, right?”
Why did the sparks have to fly to me?
“I-I’m not really sure.”
Revan studied my face for a long while, then tilted his head.
“You don’t know?”
“I-I don’t. I’m a commoner, so I don’t really know much about war.”
To be precise, I lacked even the basic knowledge. Revan looked puzzled for a moment, then nodded.
“Well, anyway, it’s just what I think. But I thought everyone else was thinking the same thing. If you thought that Evil Dragon had come here, shouldn’t everyone be in their Titans by now?”
Aaron and Allang both turned their heads toward the Titans at the same time.
“Did everyone just not think that far?”
“Since the opponent is the Evil Dragon, I thought Professor Zeke would somehow take care of it.”
“But still, if the opponent is the Evil Dragon…”
Boom.
It wasn’t the sound of an impact. It was the sound of something exploding in the distance. Allang’s expression twisted sharply, and he brought up a hologram with his smartwatch.
“It’s been shot down.”
“What?”
Among the six arranged screens, one had gone completely black and displayed nothing.
Boom.
Rumble.
Boom.
Immediately afterward, the remaining five screens went dark one after another. Allang shut off the now meaningless display.
“All of them.”
The sound of drone fragments falling onto the temporary hangar came from above. Before I knew it, everyone inside the hangar was looking up at the ceiling.
For the first time, Revan’s expression distorted.
“That can’t be.”
Craaaack!
An immense weight struck the roof of the hangar. The impact rang out loudly enough to make the entire temporary hangar reverberate.
As if a Titan had fallen from the sky and landed on it.
“In this scenario, there’s no way Fafnir should appear.”
It was the moment I turned my head toward Revan.
The ceiling of the hangar tore open, and a gigantic Titan revealed itself.