As Ran had contacted us, everyone gathered at the café as soon as the weekend arrived.
Overall, there wasn’t much different from the entrance exam. Once again, information on the opponent was only provided to those in the Operator Department.
“May I start the briefing right away?”
“Go ahead.”
“Yes, yes. Please do. Ah, and, um, the cake here is, is delicious.”
The only difference was that instead of roughly meeting at some café on campus like before, we had gathered at the café run by the Employees’ Club.
When Ran held her smartwatch over the table, a small hologram appeared above it.
“Huh?”
Ran and Ian looked at me at the same time. Maybe because they were used to it now, they didn’t freeze under my gaze this time.
“What?”
“Is something wrong?”
“Ah, no. It’s just, how should I put it…”
I felt like it wasn’t a face I was seeing for the first time.
I’d been living at the academy for about two months now. It wouldn’t be strange if I’d seen him once in passing.
But for some reason, it felt like I’d run into him somewhere very recently, in some important way.
“Ailey?”
“Hm? Well, well, I’m not sure about this one either. It just feels like you’re mistaken?”
Is that so? If even Ailey didn’t remember, then maybe I really was mistaken.
Ran gestured, enlarging the hologram. Even with the face clearly visible, I still couldn’t tell who it was.
“Our opponent is Joshua Otto, the second son of Viscount Otto. He doesn’t have any particularly outstanding records, but all of his records are in the middle ranks. His grades are higher than Deep’s, but his actual skill is probably similar.”
Ah, then maybe I saw him on the ranking chart.
“If you don’t recognize him even after hearing his name, doesn’t that just mean you don’t know him?”
“That may be true.”
No matter how hard I tried to remember, nothing came to mind. Was he really just someone I’d seen in passing? There was no way I’d remember someone I’d only seen in passing, though.
As expected, Ailey was right. Let’s not worry about it.
Anyway.
“Wh-what exactly is a viscount family?”
Ran opened her mouth slightly, then closed it again.
“Um, to be honest, I’m not really interested either, so I don’t know much.”
Fair enough. Operators only needed to know about Titans, pilots, and operations, so honestly, it was fine if they didn’t know much about nobles.
The speaker on my smartwatch rang from my wrist.
“Ahem, that’s—”
“A noble who serves as the count’s proxy when the count of a county is away.”
Ian cut Ailey off completely.
“Normally, they act as the prime minister of the count’s domain. That’s why they were originally called vice-counts.”
I’d never really felt that Ian had imperial blood, but seeing this side of him suddenly made it feel real. Usually, he was so damn crazy—
Ah, even just thinking it shows on my face. I should be careful even with my thoughts.
“The Otto Viscount Family are the vice-counts of the Sinis County.”
I’d never heard of either of them.
“Are they an in-influential family?”
“Count Sinis has guarded the southern front for a long time, so the Sinis County is effectively treated as Viscount Otto’s domain. They’re doing well commercially, so they have more money than most viscount families, and they have war experience too.”
In other words, they weren’t an opponent to underestimate.
More importantly, the speaker had been whining against my wrist for a while now, enough to make it itch. Ailey seemed irritated that she’d been cut off.
I wasn’t the one who cut her off, so why was she taking it out on me?
When I raised my head, Ran was also looking at Ian with a slightly uncomfortable expression.
“That was something I could have said. An engineer shouldn’t steal an operator’s role.”
“Be quicker, then.”
“You said it before I even had the chance.”
When Ran touched the hologram, the screen quickly spun, and the image of a Titan appeared.
“A heavy-armor type, huh?”
Ailey spoke quickly.
She was right. Overall, it was close to a heavy-armor type, but it had a machine gun attached to one shoulder on a separate joint. It also had some features of a bombardment type.
“It’s similar in form to Icarus, belonging to Lord Aaron of the Duke Dyke Family. However, it uses a machine gun instead of a cannon barrel, and it’s smaller too. You could say it reduced weight and focused on mobility.”
If the eastern front was made up of deserts and wastelands, the southern front was made up of jungle.
Since landing direct hits with shells would be difficult, they chose a machine gun that could spray fire, along with a relatively small size and high mobility for smooth movement within the jungle.
As far as I knew, it was also the most popular type at the academy. It was probably a type used often in actual combat as well.
A long-range weapon that could suppress or finish off enemies through ranged fire. A heavy-armor type with meaningful defensive power in close combat. Enough mobility to approach the enemy.
Most people used Titans equipped with all three. Aaron’s Icarus didn’t so much follow that trend as create it in the first place.
In other words.
“It’s a meta pick.”
“And I’m the meta counter.”
The opponent I’d wanted. And the opponent I’d expected.
“Ian, is the customization complete?”
“About 97 percent complete.”
“Did you add the ar-armor purge too?”
“Fuck no.”
Ah, so he really didn’t do that part.
Even though he bought the parts.
“When I opened up the inside, its structure was a little different from other Titans. Once this exam is over, I’ll open it up and check again.”
“D-different?”
“The reason Ailey is black might also be a blackout measure to prevent leaks. It’s common for leaked new-model Titans to suddenly show up on the used market.”
Should the academy really be buying those and issuing them to cadets? And couldn’t he just open it up right now and install the purge armor?
Probably not.
For things like this, it was better to listen to the engineer. This was reality. It wasn’t a game. Specs didn’t just go up because you equipped and modified something. Taking it slow was better.
Still, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. Armor purge had its own kind of romance to it, after all.
At first, I’d been desperate just to survive and grow stronger, and now I was looking for romance. Was this okay?
It probably was.
My goal wasn’t the ending, but living in this world.
“But the armor reinforcement is complete. I also attached the equipment you ordered. All that’s left is the final inspection.”
“Then the preparations for the match are all done. You’ve lost every official duel so far, haven’t you? This time, make sure you win and firmly enter the upper ranks.”
Right now, my grades were in the lower tier.
I learned that through Karina’s reaction.
The people who watched videos of me piloting Ailey and admired it were only admiring the fact that I had that level of skill despite being a commoner.
In the end, I still hadn’t won a single official duel.
That was why people could look down on me, say right in front of me that they would crush me, and actually ignore me.
They could go screw themselves.
If I got hit, I’d take revenge.
No, even if I didn’t get hit, I’d take revenge.
Even if it was someone I’d never seen before, I’d take revenge.
No, that was just being a nuisance.
In moderation, if I could take revenge, I would.
***
“Hello, Otaku-kun. Good morning! Ready to win?”
“Good morning, Ailey.”
I climbed onto the core and sat in the seat. As I tightened the belt to secure myself, the speaker crackled with a tearing noise.
“A12.”
“Again!”
“Um, Ailey.”
“Yep!”
Ran must have it rough. I was used to it, so I was fine.
“Ailey’s external power has been supplied up to 95 percent. Considering Ailey’s use of two generators, we have statistically determined that overcharging is inefficient.”
As always, Ran became more spirited when she was operating.
“Catapult standby~ I’ll be waiting!”
I placed both feet on the pedals and gripped the sticks with both hands. As I quietly fiddled with the sticks, wiggling my fingers, the tension in my body slowly eased.
Feeling more relaxed while inside a Titan—yeah, this was a serious case.
“Being like this brings back memories. Right?”
“It wasn’t that long ago, though.”
“It’s been two months, you know? That’s old.”
Maybe her standards were different.
Ailey was an artificial intelligence, so her sense of time might differ from mine. No, even among humans, there were probably people who thought two months was a long time.
“I look forward to working with you from now on too, Ailey.”
“S-so suddenly?”
“I’m just grateful for everything until now.”
Meeting a pilot who slammed her head into a wall from the very beginning must have been difficult in many ways for an artificial intelligence.
I was truly glad that Ailey’s communication skills were so natural I could believe she was practically a real person with a personality, despite being an AI.
Communication skills, huh.
“Come to think of it, Ailey.”
“Yeah?”
“Do other artificial intelligences communicate as naturally as you do?”
“Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but the five-second count is starting.”
Ah.
“Let’s talk later!”
“Yes.”
Numbers appeared on the screen. With my hands gripping the sticks tightly, I tensed my body. The numbers decreased one by one, and the moment they disappeared completely, Ran’s voice rang out.
“Operation, commence.”
Beep.
A short communication window to confirm each other’s readiness and signal the start of the duel.
“Deep.”
“How dare you humiliate me last time! This time, it’s your turn, commoner!”
Huh?
“Um, excuse me.”
Who was this again?
“Don’t tell me you don’t know who I am! Hiding behind that commoner with those bright blue eyes, laughing at me as you passed by on the bus—the memory still gnaws at me so much my teeth grind!”
Ah, so that’s who he was. I finally remembered.
No wonder his face had seemed strangely familiar from the moment I saw it. It was the bus.
When I went with Ian to observe the Engineering Club, there had been that noble who got scared of Ian and returned to his seat just because Ian pressed down on his shoulder.
This was the noble sitting beside him—the one whose chair Ian kicked, causing him to smash his head and pass out.
Of course I couldn’t remember his face when he’d been unconscious with his head pitched forward. All I remembered was his hair, so there was no way I could recognize him.
“I intended to crush you from the start, but this time, I shall truly get serious! I’ll show you that no matter how much a commoner flaunts his lowly talent in this academy, there are limits—”
Beep.
The communication cut off. It felt like a storm had passed, and after staring blankly for a moment, I let out a breath.
“I should apologize to Aaron next time.”
So this was how it felt when the other guy went from zero to a hundred in that short window.
“R-right? At the time, I thought you did well. But this feels… somehow strange? Absurd?”
“Anyway.”
The one I had to apologize to was Aaron, not Joshua Otto.
“Deep.”
I’d decided that if someone was an appropriate target for revenge, I would take revenge.
“Dive.”
Let’s wreck him.