Titan Modification Theory lecture.
It was Professor Sumeragi’s class. Held every Tuesday morning.
It was also a class related to engineering, and I was planning to customize Ailey soon. Naturally, the lecture came through more clearly than usual.
I had never learned it before, but I had already read through the lecture materials about three times.
I think this every time, but speed-reading really was the best trait I could have chosen. It felt like I was turning text into images and storing them.
I read almost like an artificial intelligence. I could focus on most materials, whatever they were, and I didn’t lose concentration during lectures either.
I was never particularly good at studying in the first place, so I could only say it was thanks to the speed-reading trait.
If there was one person who interfered with that concentration, it was Professor Sumeragi, the one giving the lecture.
There was nothing wrong with the lecture itself. It was just that, for a while now, our eyes kept meeting. To be honest, I did feel a little guilty toward Professor Sumeragi.
I had turned down her offer to be a teaching assistant, and I had turned down her club invitation too. The latter was one thing, but maybe I should have thought a little harder about the TA offer.
No, even then, I definitely would have refused.
Maybe because I had charged at Fafnir, but even on my way to school this morning, I had felt an absurd number of eyes on me. If I had also been serving as a first-year teaching assistant, I would have felt that kind of attention on a regular basis.
It was true that I felt a little guilty, but from my perspective, all of it had been unavoidable.
Still, wasn’t today a bit much? The lecture was almost over, and without exaggeration, we had made eye contact at least fifty times. What did I do wrong? I haven’t done anything wrong lately.
“Today’s lecture will end thirty minutes earlier than usual.”
The moment Professor Sumeragi finished speaking, Princess Saya, who was sitting beside me, stretched her arms up with a long yawn.
She lived a life where she piloted the imperial family’s Titan and had engineers customize it every time according to her piloting methods and shortcomings. Of course she wouldn’t be interested in a lecture like this.
“If you have any questions, please send them through the academic community, and I will answer them there.”
I had been able to focus unusually well today, but once the lecture actually ended early, I was still glad. At the same time, I couldn’t help thinking we could have gone just a little further.
“Cadet Deep, stay behind for a moment. Let’s have a talk before you go.”
Uh.
This wasn’t what I wanted.
The students began leaving the lecture hall. Princess Saya glanced at me, then left with the crowd.
Only two people remained in the classroom. Me and Professor Sumeragi.
“Um, Professor?”
“Iri come.”
What country’s language was “iri come” supposed to be?
“Yes, ma’am.”
When I approached, Professor Sumeragi dragged over a chair and sat down. I pulled over a chair as well and sat across from her.
After staring at me for quite some time, Professor Sumeragi slowly opened her mouth.
As expected, was it because I had done something wrong?
“By any chance, did I do something wrong to you, Cadet Deep?”
“What?”
I had been thinking the exact opposite.
“I’ll admit it.”
No, I had no idea what she was admitting.
“I was hasty in offering you the teaching assistant position. After looking into it later, I found that you greatly dislike doing things that draw attention from others. I apologize.”
This wasn’t the kind of person she was.
I had been attending the Academy for a while now, and by this point, I had a decent understanding of what kind of person Professor Sumeragi was.
Self-righteous.
Among the people commonly called geniuses by the world, she was the sort of genius who had little interest in understanding others.
The side she showed students was only a tiny part of her; she was someone who acted almost entirely according to her own interests. I had even heard that her reputation among the professors was bad.
There were even rumors that, despite being an engineering professor, she tended to look down on the pilot-track professors.
“The club invitation as well. To think I knew so little about the club I’m in charge of… To be honest, I was disappointed in myself.”
I was a pilot major. There was absolutely no reason for her to act like this toward me, someone who was only taking Modification Theory, a class that was no more than basic material for engineering majors.
I had thought she wasn’t the sort of person to reflect on herself like this.
Just as I was wondering whether I should swallow my pride for a moment and go ask Revan about it, Professor Sumeragi clearly met my eyes.
“But even so, you said you would come see me. Weren’t there plenty of chances for you to do that?”
“M-Me?”
I said I would go see Professor Sumeragi?
I had no idea. I didn’t even remember it. No, since I had never done it, of course I didn’t remember. I really hadn’t.
Had I sent Professor Sumeragi a message saying I would come see her?
Hurriedly, I hid my hand under the table and turned on my smartwatch. I quickly opened the messenger and scrolled down.
Professor Sumeragi was on the list.
“I-I said something like that…”
There was no way I had.
“I d-did, d-didn’t I. Yes.”
I had.
But I wasn’t the one who did it.
Ailey.
She had sent a message saying that I wanted to borrow a heavy-armored Titan, and that if Professor Sumeragi helped with the rental, I might come see her once.
Not that I would come see her, but that I might come see her.
“Th-Thanks to you, the joint exam went well too. Thank you.”
That part was true.
Of course, the heavy-armored Titan I had rented through Professor Sumeragi had now been reduced to complete junk. Still, one of its arms had remained, and I had used it to knock down Fafnir’s wing.
I planned to use the remaining parts when customizing Ailey as well, so it was fair to say that I really had benefited greatly from Professor Sumeragi.
Of course, the rental had ended up turning into a purchase, but I had somehow resolved that through the Luna family’s sponsorship. Otherwise, I would have ended up in debt to the Academy.
I didn’t want to live being chased by interest payments even in this world.
“So it helped. If you understand gratitude…”
“O-Of course I was planning to come see you! I didn’t forget!”
I didn’t forget. I hadn’t lied.
After all, you had to remember something first before you could forget it.
At my words, Professor Sumeragi narrowed her eyes, then slowly nodded after a moment. Somehow, she seemed to have accepted it roughly enough.
Feeling relieved, I lowered my head. Maintaining eye contact for too long was very bad for this body.
“I suppose so. There’s no way Cadet Deep wouldn’t understand gratitude. A professor helps a cadet, and the cadet expresses his thanks to the professor.”
“Th-That’s right.”
“And then, when the professor asks for help, the cadet helps her in return.”
“R-Right. Yes.”
“Which is why I’d like you to help me a little, Cadet Deep.”
“Of course…”
Uh.
“What?”
She wanted help?
I raised my head. Blinking a few times, I looked at Professor Sumeragi. The corners of her mouth slowly lifted. The disappointed expression she had worn until a moment ago was nowhere to be seen.
This bastard is smiling, isn’t she?
No way she was using this as an excuse to—
“Don’t worry. I have absolutely no intention of using this as an excuse to make you my teaching assistant or force you into my club. I’m not that bad, Cadet Deep. What I want to ask is something completely different.”
It felt like she had read my mind, but in any case, that was a relief.
I had no desire to become a teaching assistant at all, and I had no intention of joining the engineering club Professor Sumeragi oversaw either. After looking into it, apparently it really was a club where there was a certain degree of discrimination based on status and rank.
More precisely, I think I heard it wasn’t intentional at first, but it had become entrenched as a club where nobles gathered and worked together.
If Professor Sumeragi had a conscience, she wouldn’t think of putting me in that club.
Though judging by the way she was talking right now, that conscience seemed a little lacking.
“S-So what is the favor?”
Still, she was a person of common sense. She would ask for something I could do.
“I heard Cadet Ian is your assigned engineer. Is that correct?”
Ian?
Come to think of it, it was only natural for Professor Sumeragi to know Ian. He was an engineering major.
“Yes, th-that’s right.”
“After what happened with you, Cadet Deep, I looked into the club I advise, and Cadet Ian was active as a member of the engineering club.”
“I…”
See.
I stopped myself before answering.
A club where there was inevitably discrimination based on rank and status.
Ian had joined that kind of club, and he was someone who would erupt in rage at even the slightest comment about what engineers were like, then try to smash my wrist.
The things that would happen next were so obvious that chills ran down my spine.
“D-Did Ian perhaps h-hit someone?”
“What?”
No, not perhaps. He definitely had.
There was almost no chance he had merely hit someone either. He had probably slammed a monkey wrench into someone’s jaw. He was more than capable of doing that. There would have been no reason for him not to.
Hitting people was something you weren’t supposed to do in itself, but if Ian had possessed that kind of common sense, he wouldn’t have kicked the table and knocked Aaron over.
“Did someone g-get hurt?”
“No, not at all? I’m not sure why you’re suddenly saying that.”
They weren’t hurt?
Then did he kill them?
“Cadet Ian hasn’t done anything. However, the other members of the same club feel very uncomfortable around him. Cadet Ian seems to know that as well.”
What a relief.
So it hadn’t happened yet.
“Because there’s a d-difference in status.”
“That’s right. Cadet Ian’s case is a rather serious one.”
He was a commoner in a club full of nobles. Not even a commoner, but someone of servile status, so the difference in standing was excessive. Even if the nobles didn’t constantly make discriminatory remarks, it was enough to make things uncomfortable.
“Everyone is struggling with how to treat Cadet Ian, so I wanted to get some help from you, Cadet Deep. You must be close with Cadet Ian.”
“R-Ran is probably closer to him than I am.”
“Still, it’s impressive. To think you’re not uncomfortable around someone with imperial blood.”
“What?”
“What?”
“What?”
“You didn’t know?”