On the morning of the exam, when I went to the hangar, Ian said triumphantly,
“Installed them. Thrusters.”
Absurd.
All I had asked for was a backpack thruster. And yet Ian had expanded the unit and installed side thrusters as well.
Because he had installed them in a rush, the fuel pipes were exposed on the outside, but still—how had he managed to get a main thruster and two side thrusters in a single day?
When I gave him a questioning look, Ian shrugged.
“Connections.”
A lowborn had connections?
I couldn’t understand it at all, but for now, I nodded. The entrance exam was not far off. First, I had to board the Titan quickly. The pilot suit was tight and a little uncomfortable.
Ran, who was standing beside me, muttered with an anxious expression.
“We couldn’t get a catapult. No one would lend us one. This was the best we could borrow.”
This. In other words, a starting block.
It looked like the blocks track athletes used for a crouching start—a kind of catapult that used only the machine’s thrust. But it was far from a real catapult.
However, for the A12 Titan, even that much of a starting block could be sufficient help. Even if my chances of winning plummeted vertically, there was nowhere lower for them to fall.
“I-it-it’s all right.”
“Really?”
Um.
“N-no.”
At my honest answer, Ran’s face stiffened for a moment, then she burst into laughter. She seemed to think I was joking.
I was serious, though.
Before I could say anything more, the core’s hatch closed.
I slipped into the cockpit and had it recognize my smartwatch, and the screen lit up. At the same time, a voice that was still somewhat unfamiliar rang out from the speaker.
“Hello, otaku-kun. Good morning! Are you ready to win?”
“Hello, A12.”
“Ah, that isn’t a concept, you’re actually speaking politely? You’re going to keep doing that?”
A12’s voice cut off for a moment, and then Ran’s voice came through, tearing across the speaker.
“External power to A12 supplied up to 105%. Pilot on standby. One minute remaining until operation start. Titan, prepare for departure.”
A12 answered in my place.
“Starting block standby~ I’ll wait!”
The Titan lowered its upper body and set both feet against the starting blocks. It braced both hands on the floor, lifted its head forward, and looked straight ahead. My body tilted slightly downward.
“Since the visual information may contain slight errors or time delays, please judge and act on your own as necessary, Pilot.”
Was Ran the type to become a little more spirited when operating?
The supplied power and fuel began concentrating in the externally added thrusters. As the thrusters went through preheating and the heat seemed to carry all the way to the core, my breathing gradually grew tight.
Speaking of tight, I felt like there was something I’d meant to say.
“Ah, A12.”
“Hm? Otaku-kun calling me first? That’s totally unusual.”
“I thought about it a little, and A12 is a bit hard to call you. How about Ailee?”
The inside of the core fell silent, then laughter burst out.
“That sounds totally otaku! But, yeah. I like it! Deep.”
Due to the difference in priority, Ailee’s voice cut off again. In its place, Ran’s rigid voice rang out.
“Operation, start.”
To make the opening declaration, the microphone connected to the opponent.
***
Saya Aslan looked straight ahead.
It was an unfair fight. Her opponent was lowborn, with no pilot experience whatsoever. Since he had no personal machine, he was in a position where he had to receive a used one from the Academy. Meanwhile, she was in perfect condition, without even a handicap.
“One minute until the exam begins, Lady Aslan.”
“Drop.”
The aerial transport unit detached from the Titan. She felt a slight sense of floating, and then the Titan slammed into the ground. With a resounding clang, dust billowed up.
Had they placed her, the imperial princess, as the first examinee in order to heighten the attention on the exam itself? Or was it because some sinister people wanted to reveal the low standard of the lowborn?
Whichever it was, the Academy truly was malicious. It clearly meant there was someone who wanted to see a lowborn be humiliated.
“Lady Aslan. Since information on the opponent is insufficient, I will relay the predicted possibilities.”
“Permitted.”
“Possibility one: a long-range bombardment type. In that case, allow a slight hit to confirm their position, then approach with evasive maneuvers and annihilate them. Shall I brief the next operation as well?”
“No.”
Would a strategy even be necessary?
Could an unexpected situation really arise from such a beginner? Possibility one was an assumption Saya could easily make on her own.
The time on the display decreased. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
At the start of the exam, for just three seconds, her communication linked with her opponent’s. It was to confirm that both sides were ready and signal the beginning of the exam.
“Saya Aslan.”
“Deep.”
The name declared was to announce the participants of this duel.
“Launching.”
“Dive.”
The words that followed were to announce the opening of battle.
Boom!
At the same time as the opponent’s peculiar sortie line, a sound like an explosion rang out from far away. As expected, was it a surprise long-range shot? Saya Aslan did not panic and turned the body of her beloved machine.
No projectile came flying in.
“Hm?”
Boom!
The sound rang out once again. The direction of the sound was the same, but the distance had closed. It was movement Saya could sufficiently perceive with her spatial awareness.
Only belatedly did the operator shout,
“Target, ap-approaching! At this speed, it’s almost on the level of a ship catapult!”
She had sensed it, and heard it, but she could not accept it.
For a moment she was dumbfounded, but soon laughter burst from her. With a used Titan he was piloting for the first time, he intended to oppose her while she rode the imperial family’s personal machine.
“Show me.”
Show me that the difference in a Titan’s performance is not the decisive difference in combat power.
Watching the streamlined Titan approaching from far away, Saya smiled.
***
“Deep, wake up! Wake up!”
Hup.
I opened my eyes. It was exactly as Ailee had warned. A crouching launch accompanied by thruster propulsion was not something this body could withstand. The gravitational acceleration was tremendous.
My vision had gone pitch-black for a moment, and I had lost consciousness just like that. Only after the shock absorption system belatedly eased the G-force did my sight return.
“Target confirmed 100 meters ahead!”
It was information I could more or less figure out even if Ran hadn’t shouted it, but I was grateful she told me anyway.
What I could see through the screen was a red Titan. The single horn on its head meant it was a commander-type machine. The ornate gold ornamentation proved that machine belonged to the imperial family.
The Titan, Kaiser. A Titan on an entirely different level from Ailee.
Kaiser raised its hand. From one shoulder, a greatsword as large as a Titan’s body was drawn. The sight of it standing there, holding that sword lightly with its immense output, sent chills down my spine.
Even if I had chills, I still had to say what needed to be said.
“A12, encountering Kaiser! Commencing engagement!”
Our operation was one thing and one thing only.
A sudden approach and a surprise attack.
To gain the upper hand by making use of my specialty, which the opponent did not know about, and end it in a short battle before our insufficient battery situation or output problems were exposed.
If there was a specialty I had honed while playing Titan Core, it was, of course, ultra-high-speed maneuvering.
A full, thick, streamlined chest core that minimized air resistance. A lightweight frame body. Thick thigh parts with higher output compared to the other sections.
Ailee was an ultra-high-speed maneuvering-type Titan that seemed to have been tailored precisely for me.
Clank! I moved the buttons, stick, and pedals all at once.
“Let’s go!”
Hovering. With the acceleration intact, Ailee’s feet lifted into the air. At the same time, the opened side thrusters spewed flame as if exploding.
A turn of massive mass that did not suit the enormous body at all. An ultra-high-speed acrobatic maneuver I had also shown during the Academy entrance qualification exam.
However, the opponent was not a lowest-grade AI. She was a first-rate battlefield pilot who regarded such things as small fry.
“Do not think I will give you my back!”
I hadn’t thought so.
Clack, boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The standard small pistol fired, striking Kaiser’s blade. That sword, with its enormous size and mass, was both a close-combat weapon and an ultra-high-strength shield.
With a standard small weapon like this, I could neither break nor pierce the sword. It was the exact opposite situation from the Academy entrance test I had taken before.
An enemy with a massive close-combat weapon. Me, equipped with standard long-range armament.
According to common sense, I should continue using thrust to retreat while maintaining long-range harassment. That was the only way out. As if Kaiser had recognized that fact as well, it accelerated toward me, spewing flame.
The way it accelerated with its body hidden behind the blade looked as though a giant wall itself were charging at me.
She was probably shouting. Try to run. Fight with everything you have. Find the correct answer.
If I acted according to common sense, this was a match I could never win.
“Ailee, how strong is your chest armor?”
“It’s sturdy!”
Then I would collide with it.
The opponent was not a wall. She was merely covering her own eyes with a giant plank.
“Now.”
Hovering off.
The massive mass dropped toward the ground. The immense thrust became kinetic energy as it was, forcibly driving the feet into the floor and fixing them there. At the same time, I lowered my posture as much as possible.
The streamlined body became a giant obstacle and crashed into the blade and Kaiser.
At the moment of impact, Kaiser’s body flipped upward into the air.
“Urgh!”
Ailee’s body vibrated with a sharp clang. Because of the fundamental difference in armor and weight, my whole body went numb.
But I had broken her stance.
Flame burst from all over the airborne Titan Kaiser’s body. Its thrusters were automatically controlling its balance. The body that had risen into the air rapidly rotated.
If it was automatic control by artificial intelligence, then it would be impossible to perfectly grip and control the sword in its hand. There would inevitably be a clear opening.
Thinking that, the moment I extended the muzzle backward, I realized it.
“It’s not automatic control?”
At close range, a voice squeezed in through the connected communication.
“Correct.”
This was not a game, but reality. The opponent was not artificial intelligence. She was a veteran pilot who had crossed the line between life and death, and she was capable of maneuvers beyond imagination.
I was not the only one capable of movements that defied expectation.
“Truly splendid. Had it been any other Titan that accepted a foolish artificial intelligence, that would have been a troublesome blow.”
Tang!
The bullet from the standard small pistol slammed into the blade and ricocheted off.
“However, a pilot who has completed the imperial family’s harsh training neither trusts artificial intelligence, nor uses it, nor, furthermore, even installs it.”
Having finished controlling its balance, Kaiser landed on the ground and accelerated again. Ailee’s body, after the collision, crashed into the floor and rolled. The thrusters for balance control did not spew flame.
Of course they didn’t.
“Only the thrusters were added! We didn’t receive any additional propellant!”
As I heard Ran’s scream-like voice, I aimed the muzzle forward.
The massive blade filled my vision.
“No—”
One-sided.
After that, there was no other way to describe it.