Wish

“Those engineers over there are going to have their work cut out for them!”

“They really are.”

The Huntress is in no state to speak of.

Its most delicate and complex main camera sensor—in other words, its head—has been completely crushed.

One of its legs was blown apart by a sympathetic detonation, and the aftermath of the explosion damaged the rest of it as well.

It’s easy to say that because it’s someone else’s Titan, but if Ailee had ended up like that...

I’m not joking—I’d be clinging to Ailee right now, weeping tears of blood.

“I never actually intend to go that far.”

“I know what you mean!”

Should I say that once I get started, I end up smashing them to pieces like this?

Or that not once has an opponent ever accepted the result and surrendered quickly?

I really don’t understand why nobles are creatures who absolutely refuse to surrender.

“Ian’s going to have a hard time too, though.”

This time, I took a solid hit as well.

There have always been scratches from glancing blows or ricochets, but...

“Yeah. Ailee’s left arm ended up like this, after all!”

Ailee’s left arm was a complete mess too.

Through this customization, all of the close-combat equipment had been adopted as built-in gear.

Since the structure had become a bit more complicated, it would be hard on Ian, who had to repair it.

That was something Ian would have to shoulder.

Just as I had given Ian the time for Ailee’s core customization.

Kki, kkiiiiiiik!

The Huntress’s twisted core hatch opened.

Lucia staggered for a moment, then looked straight at me and started walking this way.

She looked angry.

“Deep!”

“Y-yes?”

“You already have a fan club! You tricked me?!”

I do?

There’s no way.

The moment I thought that, my smartwatch immediately buzzed.

“Ah, I was in too much of a hurry earlier, so I couldn’t answer you.”

Ailee grinned.

“I already made the fan club!”

“W-why on earth?”

“Because I wanted to!”

Do gyarus have some separate fuel source for propulsion or something?

“When?”

“Uh, I made it last semester already, didn’t I? Even if there aren’t any members, there’s still a president. Me!”

Last semester?

A fan club.

I had heard of things like the princess’s fan club or Aaron’s fan club.

If someone was fairly good-looking, had a high status, and was skilled, people like that would naturally gather around them.

But that didn’t mean there had to be one for me too.

To begin with, there shouldn’t have been anyone interested in something like that.

“Don’t talk to an artificial intelligence when I’m right in front of you.”

“Uh.”

Lucia grabbed my wrist and yanked it down.

The smartwatch recognized the motion and immediately turned off the hologram.

“When there’s a noble in front of you, the bare minimum of manners—”

“Ailee.”

I twisted my wrist.

“Huh?”

“Don’t treat her carelessly.”

In an instant, I grabbed Lucia’s wrist and twisted it around.

As Lucia’s arm bent, Ailee’s hologram returned.

Lucia looked surprised for a moment, then immediately smiled.

“You’re strong, huh?”

“Apologize.”

“I’ll apologize.”

“Say sorry to me!”

“Sorry to me.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Why is she being so obedient?

I had subdued her by force in the heat of the moment, but her reaction wasn’t sharp at all, so I was actually more flustered.

When I slowly let go of her wrist, Lucia pressed and rotated it with her other hand.

“S-sorry. It’s just...”

“It’s fine. I touched it first.”

Lucia lightly shook her hand in the air, then looked straight at me.

“So, your wish?”

“My wish?”

“I said I’d grant you anything you want, didn’t I? No, wait.”

Lucia immediately raised one hand.

“Nothing lewd. And don’t ask me to marry you.”

“What?”

“Of course, I understand very well that you’d want to marry an attractive noble like me and rise in status.”

“O-of course that’s not what I was going to ask.”

That hand immediately grabbed me by the collar.

“Are you saying I’m not attractive?”

What rhythm am I supposed to dance to here?

“I already h-have something to ask.”

“What is it?”

I had already thought of what I wanted to ask.

I had just forgotten while sparring.

“When the club festival starts, please come look at I-Ian’s goods.”

“Ian? Your engineer?”

“Yes.”

At the club festival, I would increase the number of people who came to see Ian’s goods by even one.

“Not buy them?”

“C-coming to see them is what’s i-important.”

Recently, after lectures, while receiving instruction from the academy director, I learned something.

What nobles lacked was not money, but time.

There were few opportunities to buy the time of a member of a prestigious ducal house like Dis Pater.

Simply making a member of the ducal family devote time to Ian’s goods...

“You want to pretend you have the favor of the Dis Pater family, don’t you?”

...would even make it possible to act as if he had some connection to that ducal house.

Lucia might not look it, but she was a member of a ducal family.

“I feel like you’re thinking something rude.”

“N-no, I’m not.”

For now, if I could get a member of the Dis Pater ducal family to devote time to Ian...

“A-and also.”

“You only get one request, you know?”

“It’s c-connected to the first one.”

“Well, fine. That much is okay.”

Even the problems that would arise from Ian tampering with the core...

Might be offset somehow.

“If a problem comes up, please take Ian’s side.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You said it was okay earlier...”

“Now I don’t want to.”

Fuck.

***

“Deep, someone just joined the fan club—”

“I need to think right now.”

“Ah, okay. Got it!”

Ian said he would finish everything within three weeks, including Ailee’s repairs and the core modification.

No, now that I think about it, if my core is going to be exhibited...

Including the one-week exhibition period, that means I really won’t be able to ride Ailee for a whole month straight.

I got baited.

No, that’s not quite right—calling it baited is a little off.

The Huntress used the recoil from its shots to throw off its own balance and hide below my field of vision.

If it hadn’t been for the all-direction monitor, I wouldn’t have been able to respond to the Huntress’s movements so quickly.

Even if the outcome might not have changed dramatically, it was true that I was always benefiting from the all-direction monitor.

If there was a problem, it was that what I gained from it wasn’t for my own sake.

Ailee walked over my wrist, then sat down on the hangar railing.

“But why did you make that request?”

“Which one?”

“You could’ve asked for something for yourself, Deep!”

“Hmm.”

Even when she asked why, I couldn’t think of any particular answer.

“First of all, because I wanted to.”

“I figured that was the case!”

“And, um.”

Step.

At the sudden sound of footsteps, I turned my head.

Bright red hair was gradually approaching.

It stood out too much for me to pretend not to notice.

“I watched your spar. I guess the rumors were true. I didn’t think you’d beat Lucia that easily. You’ve improved a lot compared to the start of the first semester.”

“Levan.”

It wasn’t unusual for Levan to come here.

But it was rare for him to appear suddenly like this after everyone else had disappeared.

“But what are those weapons? All the built-in equipment is copied from other people. Aren’t you ignoring originality a little too much?”

Ailee’s hologram vanished with a pop.

Levan came closer and leaned against the railing.

“The pile bunker was something you got from the Dis Pater family in the first place, and the hidden blade was taken from Professor Sieg, wasn’t it? As for those thrusters, you analyzed and improved on Fafnir’s wings, right?”

I could understand the first two, but could he recognize the last one just by looking at it?

He probably could.

If someone showed me a meta Titan from Titan Core 1, I’d be able to tell what they had in mind when they made it at a glance.

Likewise, Levan would probably recognize anything if it was a Titan from Titan Core 2.

Titan Core 2 included not only the Empire’s Titans, but the Allied Forces’ Titans as well.

The Allied Forces, divided into north, south, east, and west, all used Titans with different characteristics.

So it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the types of Titans Levan knew were roughly five times as many as mine.

“Th-thanks for recognizing it.”

“Right? People who make builds get energized when someone recognizes something impressive.”

After a brief silence, Levan turned his head.

“You tampered with the core, didn’t you?”

That was information I still hadn’t gone out of my way to reveal to anyone.

It meant he could tell just from the spar earlier.

“You’d better stop. There hasn’t been a single run where touching the core ended well.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“I told you last time. Don’t get close to the Luna family.”

He had said that.

“But.”

He had said that, but...

“You went to the northern front, Levan.”

Now, his words had no persuasive power.

The Dis Pater family was not the only one located in the north.

If the Dis Pater family, which mainly handled support types, set traps in those northern snowfields, then responding to the enemy with high-mobility types was the role of the Luna family.

In other words.

“If the Luna family really has to be avoided, then you would have gone to a front other than the north, Levan.”

Contrary to what Levan had said, Levan himself was not avoiding the Luna family.

Rather, it was the opposite.

“Well.”

He had approached the Luna family.

“So?”

Levan smiled brightly.

It was a stiff smile.

There was no way looking at it could bring peace to my heart; it was nothing more than the smile of someone scheming something.

It couldn’t even be compared to Ailee’s smile.

“What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m trying to say is...”

Levan slowly straightened up, then turned his back.

“It’s still the same. Be careful of the Luna family.”

“So—”

“It’s not ‘so.’ I’m telling you, I’m looking out for you because you’re from the same hometown.”

Tsk.

Levan clicked his tongue and started walking out of the hangar.

“To the Luna family, cores are practically faith itself. Even the members within the family don’t know much about cores unless they’re in research. But they value cores absolutely.”

Because it was the technology that had raised the Luna family up.

“Well, even if they don’t do anything to you right away, it’s obvious they’ll see you as a thorn in their side. And when that time comes...”

Little by little, it became clear.

The reason Levan had tried to distance me from the Luna family.

“The Luna family never liked commoners to begin with. They might try to kill you.”

It wasn’t to protect me.

“Then I think I’d join in on killing you too, so please don’t make me kill someone from my hometown. That’s my wish.”

He had only been trying to secure his faction first.

The moment I laughed because it was so absurd, the hangar doors closed.