툭툭.
When I tapped the smartwatch, the flickering light flashed and came on immediately.
“What, what are you talking about now? What on earth are you talking about?”
It wasn’t a tone of suspicion.
Rather, it was so like Eili to speak urgently, as if she couldn’t contain her excitement.
“What, reincarnation? The kind where otaku are so otaku they can’t tell reality from manga? But the two of you were in full serious mode just now, weren’t you?”
I mean, I could tell she was excited, but her wording was a bit much, wasn’t it.
“It’s because it’s real.”
Even as I said that, it was something so unbelievable that I thought Eili would never accept it.
In fact, it was something I had no intention of telling anyone except Reuban and Eili.
Eili let out a huh sound, then mumbled under her breath.
“Why didn’t you tell me first? I might get a little upset. I might even cry.”
There was a truly obvious reason for that.
“An otaku who bangs his head against the wall until he bleeds from morning till night tells you he’s actually reincarnated into another world. What do you think you’d say, Eili?”
“Ah, maybe I shouldn’t have opened the core hatch then?”
I hadn’t told her because I figured she’d say that.
“Aha, so Deep, you had good self-objectivity?”
If I had to nitpick, wasn’t it closer to self-criticism than self-objectivity?
Even so, these days the frequency of banging my head against the wall right after waking up had decreased tremendously. This week, it had only been once or twice, at most.
Perhaps it was because I was too exhausted to think about anything else. Running in the morning was hard enough, and Professor Zeek had singled me out to reinforce my physical training.
On top of that, to build up the knowledge I lacked compared to others, I spent the remaining time ceaselessly utilizing my speed-reading aptitude, and only when my nose was about to bleed did my daily routine end.
Maybe if I increased the time spent exercising and studying, my mind would become healthier. The important thing was having no time to be depressed, no time to look back on myself.
If even that became leisurely and I found myself able to look back on myself, then maybe there wouldn’t be so much to criticize.
“What are you thinking about?”
“That I need to figure out what to do from now on.”
I now knew the reason Reuban had been able to become top student, the reason he possessed outstanding piloting skills.
Could I catch up to Reuban?
He had said he knew the story. That he was a veteran capable of clearing hell difficulty. And it was none other than my own choice to push away the hand of such a person.
“Eili, don’t I seem like a fool?”
Perhaps it had been a foolish act.
“Huh? What? Why?”
“You heard the conversation between me and Reuban.”
Hmm.
At Eili’s voice, the smartwatch speaker buzzed and vibrated. My wrist felt slightly ticklish, as if she were speaking right against my lips.
“Yeah, not really? No matter what happens later, you can’t stay with someone you hate too much right now, can you?”
I had expected her to say something like that.
“If my habits get worse, it’s all your responsibility, Eili.”
I couldn’t tell if her unconditional affirmation no matter what I did was something she had in common with the AI from my original world, or if Eili was just uniquely like that.
“Because I always coddle you?”
“Yes.”
“Mhm. Well, if that’s the problem, I’ll take full responsibility!”
What responsibility, and how are you going to take it?
Vroom!
Suddenly, a motor sound rang out. Startled, I looked up to see a hovercar stopping in front of the hospital. Someone quickly opened the door and got out, and a figure who appeared to be a butler followed behind him.
A man strikingly noticeable for his silver-blue hair and dark blue eyes. Whether he was the patriarch of some powerful noble house, he stood out even more with all sorts of ornaments attached to his clothes.
And no matter how much I thought about it, he looked incredibly like someone.
If he had been a Titan, I would have recognized immediately what he resembled upon seeing him, but since he was a person, it was hard to tell.
The man suddenly stopped as he passed in front of me and looked straight at me. I faltered under his gaze and quickly turned my head.
When the butler at his side said something to the man, he hastened his steps again and entered the hospital. I was a little tense. Why was he staring? I hadn’t even been looking at him that intensely.
“Hey, Deep. Doesn’t Karina’s dad look exactly like that? He looks really similar.”
“Huh?”
Silver-blue hair, dark blue eyes.
The patriarch of a powerful noble house.
I glanced around briefly, then quietly approached the hovercar and searched here and there to see if a family crest was stamped on it. Instead of a car brand logo where one should have been, a family crest was stamped there.
I felt like I had seen something engraved on a White Bunny before; the shape was similar.
“I think it might be him?”
“Oh, really?”
If he was the patriarch of the Luna house, then he was Count Luna.
Wasn’t he the very figure who had laid the foundations for countless AI development, including Eili, and created innovations in the Empire’s Titan AI that the Federation couldn’t even follow?
“Let’s go after him!”
“Huh? What? Why?”
Eili suddenly shouted.
“Let’s go catch his eye just once! And tell him that Deep saved Karina!”
“Wh-why go that far?”
“To get sponsored!”
Ah.
Right. I was a commoner, so I had no money.
If I could receive sponsorship from the patriarch of Count Luna’s household, I could do far more customizations than I could now.
“Let’s go.”
I tightened the dial on my leg assistive device and immediately started running.
***
“F-Father.”
I’m trembling.
It’s heavy.
Karina’s body feels crushed.
It isn’t pain from injuries. There are no major wounds. Rather, it’s from his gaze. A frigid gaze that seemed to cut into her. Allang and Rod had already left their seats.
Oppressive pressure.
Sending such an unrestrained gaze toward his daughter as she lay injured in a hospital bed was the only thing her sole father could do.
“You lost.”
They say words weigh a thousand catties.
However, the weight of defeat that followed those words was dozens of times heavier.
Karina urgently opened her mouth.
“I-I didn’t lose to a student. It was due to a surprise attack from an enemy who appeared suddenly…”
“I said you lost.”
A certainty, not concern or a question.
“It was only because the output and equipment were restricted for student sparring…”
“You misunderstand. Did you think I came here because you lost to Fafnir?”
Karina closed her mouth.
If it wasn’t about the fight with Fafnir, then there was only one most recent defeat she had suffered.
“That commoner managed to knock off Fafnir’s wing. Truly fortunate. The prestige of House Luna was preserved thanks to that commoner’s excellence.”
The matter of losing to Deep.
“Even though you’re both high-mobility pilots.”
Being compared to a commoner.
Her father no doubt intended those words to bring her shame, but Karina felt no shame.
Since she acknowledged Deep, there was nothing shameful about it.
“I also saw the scene where Fafnir’s wing was shattered. Did you think I had so few eyes in this academy? Naturally, I saw your defeat as well.”
Yet it only made Karina close her mouth.
Footsteps were heard from outside. They gradually approached. Count Luna turned his head toward the door.
“What I liked most was that man’s spirit. I could tell because our eyes met in front of the hospital earlier.”
Count Luna smiled.
“He was a young man who showed no sign of a spirit that could be swayed by money.”
The door opened.
Seeing Deep catching his breath, Karina bit her lower lip with her head bowed. She knew what kind of expression she must be wearing. She couldn’t be a hindrance to her father with a face like this.
She couldn’t become any more useless than this.
“Ah, aren’t you the young man I saw at the entrance earlier?”
The moment Deep tried to bow in greeting, he stopped upon seeing Karina.
Why is the atmosphere like this?
No matter how dull I was, I could tell this much. No, the atmosphere in the room was so different that even a real idiot could tell. It was somehow damp, humid, and cold.
Eili, who had been shouting to hurry until just now, was quiet.
Count Luna approached me with that same smiling expression. He had been looking toward the door from the moment it opened. Not at his injured daughter.
Is that normal?
“I heard you saved my daughter. I clearly saw your exploits in the video as well. Splendid.”
“Y-Yes. S-Senior Karina saved m-me first.”
“Ah, ahh. Yes. I heard that just now as well. Because footsteps were heard during that conversation, you see.”
Count Luna turned his head slightly to glance at Karina, then turned back again. Count Luna, stroking his chin briefly, opened his mouth.
“It seems you’ve both saved each other’s lives. However, let me tell you a sad reality, young man: the lives of commoners and nobles carry different weight.”
The hand that had been stroking his chin extended toward me.
“Therefore, the good news for you is that I have much more to give you. I wish to reward you for my daughter’s life.”
Social life.
How do you do social life again?
What am I supposed to say when someone above me offers me something?
“I-It’s fine. I d-didn’t do it expecting anything in return.”
“A commoner refusing a noble’s gift may be considered rude instead. Let me teach you that.”
Fuck, that was close.
When I raised my head slightly, Karina was looking this way. When I looked at her as if asking for help, Karina nodded her head slightly.
“T-Then, I a-accept it gratefully.”
“What do you need?”
“A l-little budget… for Titan custom… customization.”
No, actually I need a lot.
But that was only by my standards. By Count Luna’s standards, it would be an amount not even worth a drop of blood from a sparrow’s foot.
I hoped so. That I could be generously sponsored.
Count Luna, who had been stroking his chin briefly, smiled in satisfaction and then took my hand.
“Sponsorship for Titan customization, you say. As expected, a pilot of outstanding skill is bound to have ambition. I have more to talk about with my daughter, so would you step outside for a moment?”
“Ah, ah, yes. I-I’ll do that.”
After shaking his hand once, I quickly went outside.
At the same time, Count Luna, making eye contact with Karina, hardened his expression.
“Investigate him.”
“What do you mean, my lord?”
“Investigate that pilot of unknown origins.”
Count Luna muttered in a small voice while wiping his hand with a handkerchief.
“He may be what I have been looking for.”
Karina Luna nodded her head.
Even out of annoyance, she had little intention of listening.