Thursday evening, the time I had arranged to meet Levan.
The Academy was vast. I’d thought this before, but the Academy really was pointlessly vast.
The grounds were so excessively large that the Academy had given up on managing the entire site in detail. Of course, the abandoned wilderness area had simply become a sparring ground.
But if you went all the way to the outskirts of that wilderness, there weren’t even any resident faculty members, let alone CCTV. It was the true outskirts, difficult to even discover.
“You’re r-really saying we’re going to make a deal in a place like this?”
“I told you, didn’t I?”
Why on earth.
We had moved slowly in low-power mode, but even riding Ailey, a high-mobility type, it had taken over thirty minutes to get here.
Even in the Academy, finding a place this remote was rare. No matter how I thought about it, I could only come up with one reason to make a deal in a place like this.
A deal you couldn’t be open about.
“Over here, if you use a localized EMP, you can disable the radar without the Academy noticing. The Academy radar is strong against external jamming, but weak against internal signals.”
He gave out information like this easily. I really couldn’t tell what Levan considered important when he chose what information to share.
“Why, why are they making a deal in a place like this?”
“Because it’s black-market trading.”
“Black-market trading?”
So it really was a shady deal after all.
“Yeah. I clearly told you there was a deal, didn’t I?”
That was true. He had said there was a deal.
But he had never said it was black-market trading. All Levan had said was that we should aim for the moment Darka Sinis made contact with the other party.
He acted as though he had told me information he had never said, so naturally that for a moment I almost wondered if I was the one at fault.
“Can we really trust him?”
“It’s unfortunate, but right now, Levan is the only one we have to trust.”
Unlike me, Levan had gotten out of Alex and was riding a hover bike. Apparently it was a bike Ian had gotten from somewhere, but I didn’t ask whether he had acquired it or stolen it.
The less you know the truth, the less responsibility you bear. Even if it was stolen, I wasn’t the one who stole it.
“Let’s never work with him again after this!”
“I was thinking something similar.”
Normally, this was around the time I’d already be lying in bed. If I wanted to go running tomorrow morning, I should have been in bed by now reading my textbook. Until about three in the morning.
Of course, there were some unexpectedly good points.
There was no lighting at all nearby. Ailey, which was originally painted black, didn’t stand out at all. If I killed all the sensor lights and light sources in low-power mode, it became completely unnoticeable.
I had never really assumed night battles, but Ailey seemed like it would be quite good for nighttime combat in the wilderness. Finding that out, at least, was a good thing.
Though during the day, being pitch-black actually made it stand out.
“I wonder if we can change the paint every time depending on what hour the sparring test is held.”
“I like it because it feels like changing outfits a lot! But wouldn’t Ian try to kill Deep?”
“Ah, right.”
Maybe I should consider installing separate panels over the armor that can switch colors. If I keep using smoke grenades, I won’t be able to make use of Ailey’s speed in the end.
“I can see them now. Get the smoke grenades ready.”
“Yes, yes.”
Levan said the second reason he entrusted this job to me was because Ailey used smoke grenades. The first was because I was from the same place as him.
Titans that used smoke grenades weren’t as rare as one might think. As long as you had a grenade launcher that could fire smoke grenades, anyone could use them.
But if Levan bought and used a grenade launcher and smoke grenades, he could be traced. So he intended to use my equipment, which I had already bought before the midterm exam, and Ailey’s help.
It was a meticulous thought, but couldn’t he have just asked to borrow my smoke grenades?
A small light became visible in the distance.
Its backpack was far larger than that of a typical Titan. The asymmetry was especially severe. Its right arm, unusually swollen compared to its left, stood out quite a lot.
Darka Sinis’s Titan, Benjamin. Those were its characteristics.
“That’s right. It’s Benjamin.”
“Uh, seems like it. But you can see well enough to be sure in this darkness? You must eat a lot of carrots.”
Just as Levan wasn’t showing all his cards, I probably didn’t need to tell him about my thermal sensor either.
What bothered me more were the things being transported one after another behind Benjamin.
Titans.
Not just one, but two. I wondered how they had moved them all the way here without being discovered, while also thinking that they would have been discovered if it hadn’t been the last day of the club festival.
Two Titans I had never seen anyone ride. They were probably spare units that had been stored in the hangar.
Ah, I see.
“So he’s using the interest repaid by the club to buy Academy Titans, then selling them outside for a higher price.”
“What the hell! That’s just printing money!”
That was true, but the problem was that it required a large initial investment, and if they were caught, they’d have to be ready to be expelled without recovering any of that investment.
If it were me, I couldn’t make a living that way.
Benjamin stretched its right arm forward. Its joints opened, and as a gun barrel spun around inside, it fired something like a short shockwave toward the outskirts.
“A localized EMP. The other party should be coming in soon.”
Contrary to Levan’s words, there was no need for “soon.” A vehicle immediately entered the wilderness.
Darka Sinis got out of Benjamin, then rode a wire down to the ground. Two people got out of the car as well, and they began talking to each other.
“Ailey?”
“Yeah, I’ll tweak the sensor settings a bit, okay?”
This was what I liked about times like this. There was no need to even say it.
Sound slowly began to come in. As expected, because of the distance, it was mixed with a huge amount of noise. Since this was the wilderness, the wind was quite strong.
“…can keep as much as… alive.”
That line is terrifying. Are they forcing a sale or something?
“Levan, sh-should we fire now?”
“Not yet.”
The moment Darka Sinis took off his smartwatch, Levan threw down his binoculars and accelerated the hover bike.
“Fire!”
Pong.
With a cheerful sound, the smoke grenade flew through the air and struck Benjamin directly.
Then, after giving off a small flash, it exploded while spewing black smoke.
I could see it through the thermal sensor. The hover bike instantly pierced through the smoke, then struck one of Darka Sinis’s legs and snatched the smartwatch.
That was the prosthetic leg, right?
Levan turned the hover bike and came bursting out of the smoke in an instant. At the same time, I grabbed the stick and turned in the opposite direction. Ailey began walking silently with its back to the smoke.
There was no benefit to standing out, and no reason to move in a hurry.
According to Levan, the transaction partners were the sort of smugglers we could easily imagine. Since Darka Sinis’s smartwatch had been stolen, they would take the Titans without paying.
In the end, all that would be left was Darka Sinis’s Benjamin, and with the two of us, we would be able to deal with him in the dark without having our identities exposed and return to the hangar.
Either way, Darka Sinis was the one who had something to hide. Once we got somewhere faculty might see us, Darka Sinis wouldn’t be able to chase us.
That was what Levan had told me.
Levan jumped off the bike, rolled across the ground, and climbed straight into Alex, which had been lying on the ground. The moment the hatch closed, Alex’s thrusters ignited.
“Huh?”
That would make him stand out.
Alex accelerated in an instant and came toward me, then grabbed Ailey firmly by the shoulder.
“Good. Then I’ll leave the front to you!”
“What?”
And even using reverse thrust, he knocked Ailey backward.
“What are you doing—”
Kooong!
The moment he confirmed that Ailey had fallen, Alex accelerated away in an instant.
As expected of a paint job based on the Federation’s White Comet. Its mobility alone was fast enough that you could believe it was a pure high-mobility type.
“Hey, Deep? What I’m thinking right now is right, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I think it is.”
Fuck. He’s damn fast at running away.
“I switched from low-power mode to normal mode! Thrusters and hovering can be used normally now!”
“Main thruster.”
“Yeah!”
A floating sensation ran through the body that had fallen over. Ailey rose in an instant and slowly turned around.
Three Titans emerged from the black smoke at the same time. Two of them were spare Titan units that hadn’t even been properly adjusted. If I faced them one at a time, they were manageable.
Not that they would ever face me one at a time.
“Without Ran’s operation support, isn’t a fight against multiple opponents really impossible?”
“I agree, but there’s nothing we can do!”
The problem was Darka Sinis’s Benjamin.
Benjamin pushed through the smoke and stretched out its right arm. The gun barrel revealed as its joints opened began rotating, charging electromagnetic waves.
“Now.”
“Now!”
Hovering. Side thrusters ignite. Calculate the trajectory while controlling recoil.
Difficult. Almost impossible. The moment I thought I had definitely dodged, Ailey’s right arm made a clunking sound and dropped downward.
“Ailey, your arm!”
“It’s okay. It’s just one arm! I’m glad you’re safe!”
A localized EMP.
A weapon that took an EMP, which would originally be so wide-ranged it would be impossible to control, and made it radiate only in a straight line.
Since the artificial intelligence could restore the damaged circuitry to some extent, the right arm would probably come back within a minute. Though if we kept getting hit, damage would accumulate in the circuits until they completely gave out.
Maybe if I just ran right now, I could get away before the next electromagnetic wave finished charging.
Beep beep.
“Hey.”
It was short-range communication. Perhaps because of the electromagnetic waves, Darka Sinis’s voice was full of static. Thanks to that, it felt like I was talking to some evil organization.
“I know whose Titan that is. It’s Deep from the first year, isn’t it? From what I hear, you’re not that aggressive by nature. I’ll persuade you with money and conversation. Tell me who the bastard who took my smartwatch earlier was.”
I hadn’t thought of this.
Darka Sinis seemed more rational than I had expected. Looking now, he was holding back a Titan that was trying to charge at me with his left hand.
Did they want to avoid combat if possible too? It would draw attention, so of course they would.
Conversation was one thing, but if he was going to persuade me with money, that was a different story. Levan had completely screwed me over and run away, so I had no reason to keep taking his side.
“No matter how much of a genius you are, in the end, you’re nothing more than a commoner who happens to be a genius among lowborn trash. You’re just a first-year. Facing three people must be too much for you. You must be scared.”
“Ah.”
So, this was absolutely not because I was taking Levan’s side.
“Um, Deep? I think it’d be b-better to just listen to him, Deep?”
“Main thruster.”
“Deep?”
“Main thruster.”
“Nooo, Deeeep!”
“Main thruster.”
I was just pissed off.
“Ah, whatever, I don’t know anymore! Main thruster!”
The moment the main thruster ignited, I pulled my left arm back.
With a metallic clank, the pile bunker loaded.