Zeus

Contact Senior Ayla to say that club activities would probably be difficult today. Confirmed.

Contact Professor Sumeragi to ask if today is the right day for the club observation. Confirmed.

My body itself was so weak to tension that if I didn’t check things over and over like this, it felt like I might suffer a heart attack.

“Shall we go?”

“Yeah, let’s go. Want me to check your heart rate?”

“No.”

I felt like I had the kind of constitution where my heart rate would shoot up noticeably the moment it was measured. There had been someone like that around me before. Someone who got nervous easily.

When we went outside and headed to the maglev bus stop, someone standing at the front of the line stared straight at me.

It was Ian.

“You said you were observing.”

How did he know?

When I stared at him with wide eyes, Ian shrugged.

“Professor Sumeragi contacted me. Said if I was coming from nearby, I should bring you.”

Sumeragi, why wouldn’t you tell me something like that?

It wasn’t a big enough deal to protest or demand an explanation over, but since things were flowing differently from what I’d expected, it bothered me in a strange way.

I understood the intent.

She probably thought that since I didn’t seem to know Ian well, we could talk on the bus on the way there, get to know each other a little, and maybe bring up the subject of transferring clubs while we were at it.

The problem was that I had no particular intention of persuading Ian.

“The, the club room is, near the hangar, right?”

“Right. If we wait for the bus and take it, takes about ten minutes.”

And then Ian shut his mouth. I didn’t have anything I especially needed to say either, so I stayed silent and just stared in the direction the bus would come from.

We didn’t say a single word until the bus arrived.

As soon as the bus came, Ian boarded without a word. Sitting by the window, he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes.

It wouldn’t even take ten minutes. Could he really sleep?

As always, the maglev bus had no partitions at all. Sitting in the aisle seat, I naturally began to feel gazes settling on me.

Ever since I fought alongside Professor Zeke to drive off Fafnir, the stares had gotten even worse. My mind had definitely grown used to them, but there was nothing I could do about my body tensing up.

“Looks like he’s put on a bit more muscle than before.”

Was that what you’d call commenting on someone’s body?

“When I saw the footage, it looked like his skills had improved a little.”

At least talk about my skills was better. I’d never thought I was lacking in ability as a pilot.

“Ah, that lowborn? Isn’t there some way to knock him down a peg before he hits his stride any further?”

What bothered me more was this side.

They were saying that right in the seat in front of me.

They weren’t saying it because they thought I wouldn’t hear. It was closer to a warning that if I didn’t want my personal safety to be at risk, I should know my place and act accordingly.

Bethesda Academy provided equal opportunities to everyone? As expected, that was complete nonsense. It was a phrase that only applied to nobles of high blood.

No one welcomed a lowborn intruding onto a stage permitted only to nobles and the handful of commoners with extraordinary talent.

The fact that Aaron, who openly called me lowborn to my face, was the one who treated me the most comfortably said enough.

As the voices began to grow louder, Ian slowly opened his eyes. After stretching once, Ian raised his foot.

“Shut the fuck up.”

The noble immediately bristled and turned around.

“What did this lowborn just—”

“Sleep.”

THUNK!

“I’m trying to sleep, fucker.”

The moment the chair was kicked, the noble sitting in it was sent flying forward and slammed his head down. His body twitched for an instant, then went still.

“Is, is he dead…?”

“Would he be? He’s just knocked out.”

Ah, was that so?

No, I’d felt relieved without even realizing it. Had Ian rubbed off on me? Didn’t he just hit someone? Or not? Had he just kicked the chair?

Wasn’t that the same thing?

“H-how dare a lowborn!”

The noble sitting beside him shot to his feet and looked at us, then froze as he saw Ian.

Blue eyes.

Those eyes that symbolized the imperial family.

“What.”

Ian rose from his seat and stood before the noble. As the bus slowly came to a stop, the noble flinched and looked up at Ian.

Ian was extremely tall. No matter who the other person was, most people ended up looking up at him. His face looking scary was a bonus.

If I knew he could hit anyone regardless of who they were, I’d probably shrink back in front of him too. Was that noble really alive?

“Move.”

“Wh-what?”

“Move. I’m getting off.”

Ah.

We’d already arrived at the hangar.

As I fumbled to get ready to get off, Ian gripped the noble’s shoulder tightly and pushed him straight down. The noble was forced weakly back into his seat.

Did everyone with imperial blood have some sort of conqueror’s aura?

After we got off the bus, Ian started walking without a word. As I walked beside him, a sudden question came to mind.

“I-Ian. There’s something I’m curious about.”

“What.”

“You have imperial blood, so why aren’t you part of the imperial family?”

Ian turned his head toward me, then narrowed his eyes slightly.

“My mother.”

“Yes?”

What?

“My mother was a prisoner from the South Allied Nations.”

Ah.

So it was family matters.

Either someone had fallen for a prisoner of war, or it had been something far uglier than that.

“Th-then your mother is…”

“No mom.”

I shouldn’t have asked.

Ah, talking about status was bound to be family matters in the first place.

I’d forgotten that for a moment.

“You don’t have a mom either.”

“Yes?”

“Wrong?”

No, well. Ha, fuck.

“R-right.”

“Lowborn average.”

Ha, shit. Was that so?

***

The Engineering Club was more dynamic than I’d expected.

Everyone was busily moving here and there, turning on holograms and talking nonstop. To be honest, from my point of view, it drained far too much energy.

Since it was right next to the hangar, I’d thought it would be a club where they physically hammered things together, but engineers sure talked a lot.

And what surprised me even more than that was—

“Th-there are more pilots than I expected.”

“There are quite a few pilots who don’t hand over full authority for their Titan’s customization to engineers.”

Surprisingly, about a third of the whole club were pilot majors.

Meanwhile, there were almost no operator majors. As expected, maybe that side just didn’t have much interest in customization or engineering.

“By the way, I didn’t think you’d come here, Junior Deep. Won’t Ayla be sad?”

“S-senior, shouldn’t you be resting?”

The second thing that surprised me was that Zeus, who was definitely injured, was here.

Even Karina, who had gotten off with only light injuries, hadn’t been discharged yet, but Zeus had definitely been seriously injured. I’d heard that the belt snapped from the collision and one of his legs had broken.

“Y-you’re walking around like that?”

I hadn’t expected him to simply have a cast on and be walking around on crutches.

“Fractures actually don’t heal if you just stay still. Besides, midterms are coming up soon, aren’t they? I can’t just lie in a hospital bed and hand my rank over to someone else.”

This person was insane too.

“Wh-what if your leg doesn’t heal?”

“You usually walk around with a brace on one leg, don’t you? I can just do something similar.”

He really was insane.

As Zeus spoke, he turned his head.

When I tilted my head slightly, I could see Ian off to the side, manipulating a hologram alone. Even from a distance, I could tell it was a hologram of Ailey.

“Ian is…”

“Are you asking if he’s always alone like that? Usually, yes. The princess is probably similar. The difference is that the princess has people who attend her, and Ian doesn’t.”

Was everyone passive when it came to dealing with members of the imperial family?

“But the princess always has people…”

“There’s profit in getting close to the princess, but there’s no reason to get close to Ian, is there? Everyone knows the personalities inherited in the imperial family are all awful, so there’s no reason to go out of your way to approach him.”

Ah, so that temper was hereditary.

Wait a second.

“Isn’t that, um, an insult to the emperor…?”

“I’m saying this because you’re lowborn. Baronial houses descended from war heroes all prefer things comfortable. Lord would probably find you easier to deal with too.”

By saying it was because I was lowborn, he probably meant that even if I went around telling people what Zeus had said, no one would believe me.

Even so, this was much more comfortable than him pitying me or something like that. At the very least, it meant he didn’t dislike me.

I kept looking at Ian, but he didn’t say a word. None of the people passing by spoke to him, and Ian didn’t seem to have any intention of speaking to anyone either.

I could understand why Professor Sumeragi was worried. Even Professor Sumeragi, who didn’t have much interest in students, would be bothered if someone was being left alone to that extent.

Assuming she had a conscience.

“So, why are you observing? You got good results in the last joint exam. Are you trying to aim for third seat? Think you can give Aaron a good match?”

“Th-that’s not it.”

I shook my head at Zeus’s words.

I had never beaten Aaron even once yet.

It wasn’t simply a matter of compatibility. Aaron’s skills were improving at the exact same rate as mine. Thanks to that, I couldn’t get any real sense of my own growth at all.

For now, I still needed someone in a position that seemed just within reach but wasn’t. Because after catching up to Aaron, the one I had to aim for was the princess.

I could picture a future where I beat Aaron, but I still couldn’t picture a future where I beat the princess.

Even when Aaron and I faced her together, it had been difficult. How was I supposed to beat her alone?

And what exactly was Levan, who had higher grades than that princess?

“But I do want to get, g-get good results.”

Zeus raised the corners of his mouth in a long grin.

“Is that so? Then should I act like a senior for once?”

“Y-yes?”

All of a sudden?

“You can make a face like, ‘All of a sudden?’ but apparently the reason I made it out alive was because you persuaded Aaron and helped Professor Zeke. I heard the Luna Count family even sponsored you outright. Our baronial house doesn’t have as much money as the Luna Count family.”

Zeus opened his hand. Dozens of Titan builds streamed past over his palm, then stopped on the Titan Zeus I knew.

“Instead, we have information on countless practical combat Titan builds.”

Information instead of sponsorship.

For me, who already had the money needed for customization through sponsorship, this would actually be even more helpful.

“Th-there was one thing I was curious about first.”

“What is it?”

“Are there Titans that use thermal imaging cameras for sensors?”

Zeus made a strange expression.

“There isn’t much reason to use a thermal imaging camera to detect something as big as a Titan, is there? At most, they’d be used for heat-seeking missiles.”

I’d thought something was strange since last time.

A combat method where even a cloud of sand and dust could make you lose the enemy, relying on visual confirmation.

I found it.

A meta counter.

“Is that all you wanted to ask?”

“Ah, n-no.”

I still had to ask everything I needed to ask.