Why the hell is this woman here?
Professor Flavia gestured to the side.
A server approached, and she took two glasses of champagne, placing one directly in front of me.
“Do you drink?”
“Ah, no.”
“It would be better if you did. What a shame.”
Is this a threat?
No, I don’t think it is. It just sounds like one.
I like alcohol.
Since I live alone and get drunk easily, I couldn’t hate it from the start.
I only quit after coming to this world.
Because my personality gets pretty shitty when I drink.
That aside, why the hell is this woman really here?
Even Karina was glancing around nervously; she clearly had no idea.
Was this Professor Flavia acting alone, rather than something related to House Luna?
No, what the hell did I even do wrong?
First, I steadied my quickening breath.
What can I say to avoid fighting?
“Pr-Professor, aren’t you from the En-engineering Department?”
“I used to be a pilot. I don’t have a personal Titan anymore, but I have the build data and the AI. There’s no problem using them for simulations.”
“I’m sorry, b-but I just did three consecutive spars.”
“Are you that tired? Each match only lasted about five minutes. You usually spar with Professor Zeke for an hour, don’t you?”
“W-would it be okay for me to spar with you?”
“You’ve sparred with Professor Zeke plenty. Of course it’s fine.”
Damn, shit.
At this point, it feels like she analyzed every possible thing I could say and prepared answers ahead of time.
I have nothing left.
When I stayed silent, Professor Flavia nodded and moved to the seat opposite me.
“Move, please.”
“Y-yes? Yes!”
The high-mobility pilot immediately stood up.
Professor Flavia only sat after briskly wiping the seat with a handkerchief.
“It’s been so long since I quit being a pilot that I can’t say I’ll go easy. Still, it’s embarrassing for a professor to lose to a cadet, so I’ll do my best.”
She means to kill me.
I turned my head slightly.
Ailey was still asleep, sitting in her chair with eyes closed.
And a male cadet was approaching her.
“Ailey, that person….”
“As long as he doesn’t wake me, shouldn’t it be fine?”
I wish that were the case.
It’s not like this gathering is legally reserved only for people who want to rest.
A ball is a place for socializing too, so we should be able to rest and chat.
In the worst case, Ailey might suddenly have to leave partway through.
Can I pilot without Ailey?
“Deep, Ailey.”
I lowered my goggles and grabbed the stick.
The holographic device projected directly before my eyes.
“Haaaa, hooo.”
The hologram created a puff of breath.
I almost felt like it was really cold.
The battlefield was a snowfield.
Favorable to House Luna.
“Flavia Luna. Samoyed.”
Did she rig this?
Let’s not think that far. What could I do even if she did?
“Dive.”
“Acknowledged.”
I pushed the stick and pressed the pedal.
Even among snowfields, this place had many obstacles and topographical features.
I didn’t know what kind of Titan Professor Flavia used, but blindly searching would be insane.
“Shall we try that thing this time?”
“You mean the observation grenade? I totally wanted to try it because it’s so cute!”
What part of a grenade is supposed to be cute?
It looks kind of like a squid.
Thwoong!
I fired the grenade upward, and the warhead opened as a propeller began to spin.
The observation grenade’s viewpoint popped up in the lower-left of my vision.
“Found it! It’s southwest, but we have to take a roundabout path!”
“Okay, I’m going.”
“Ah, I didn’t get to say it! Your tailcoat today looks really cool!”
Huh, uh.
What did the chairman tell me to say at times like this?
“You looked pretty too, Ailey.”
“Of course!”
“I meant you were pretty, not the dress.”
She fell silent.
He told me to say it like this, but was this wrong?
I slowly eased off the pedal while accelerating.
“I think we’re being lured.”
Professor Flavia’s Titan spotted the observation grenade.
She was clearly equipped with a long-range weapon on her left arm. The fact that she didn’t respond to the grenade meant she had a counter-plan.
“Let’s blow it up.”
No answer.
“Ailey?”
“Ah, uh, yeah! Let’s blow it up!!!”
“You’ll hurt my ears if you suddenly scream like that.”
“Sorry!”
I braced the railgun from my back under my side and locked the sub-legs to the ground.
“Light.”
KRA-KOOM!!!
The railgun pierced the terrain.
I’d been using it to punch through things like a jackhammer since last time; maybe it’s just my imagination.
“Making a flashy entrance.”
There.
Through the hole, a white Titan was visible.
A hybrid based on a high-mobility frame mixed with heavy armor.
No other armaments were visible.
“A shield?”
It wasn’t mounted on a sub-arm; it was a shield fixed directly to the arm.
Fixing it to the arm is advantageous in terms of locking strength and durability.
But wearing it like that is only for Titans specialized in close-quarters combat.
Like the Imperial Princess’s Kaiser.
“This, I can’t resist.”
I know my opponent is a professor.
I even know full well that it’s Professor Flavia, who doesn’t like me.
“Ailey, I’m going to purge the railgun.”
“Huh? But isn’t it better to have long-range equipment?”
“I have a rifle.”
“Well, if Deep is confident, I’m happy!”
Once close-quarters combat begins, the railgun is dead weight.
Professor Flavia stood still, as if waiting for me to approach.
I think the Titan’s name was Samoyed.
Since it’s waiting calmly like a loyal hound, I guess I have to be the one to approach.
Dive.
Firing the rifle, I engaged the hover units and thrusters simultaneously and accelerated.
At the same time, Samoyed raised its shield and fell back little by little.
At the same time, Samoyed’s right arm was partially revealed.
“It’s a whip?”
It was glowing red.
Not an ordinary physical weapon, but a heat weapon with a heating function.
“Ailey, now that combat is starting….”
“D-Deep!”
This is bad.
“The person next to me, wake me up! What do I do?! What do I do?!”
It would be troublesome if people found out Ailey is actually a small body, and it’s also troublesome if she suddenly leaves her seat right now.
“…Go and come back.”
“What? Really? Is that okay?”
But the former is far more troublesome.
The latter just makes piloting several times harder, but the former could get me tagged as a mecha otaku for life.
“It’s fine.”
“Th-then I’ll be right back. Yeah!”
Beep.
Along with the sound, Ailey’s unit faltered briefly.
Fortunately, Professor Flavia didn’t swing her whip first.
Instead of stowing the rifle, I tossed it aside, drew the whip blade on my arm, and aligned it.
“Manual control without AI is three times the normal speed.”
I don’t have the confidence to deliver that kind of performance.
Naturally, I’m slower than when Ailey is here.
I wish my whole body would turn red, releasing compressed particles to triple the machine’s specs, but Ailey doesn’t have a function like that.
I let go of the stick and reached my hand forward.
The moment something cold touched it, I grabbed it, put it to my mouth, and swallowed.
It was champagne.
My mind snapped into focus.
“Fuck.”
“What was that?”
Now that I think about it, I’m so fucking pissed.
What the fuck did I do wrong to deserve this shit, getting bitched at every time, and last time she tried to take Ailey’s core, this crazy fucking woman.
“I’m going.”
“No matter how much you’ve soaked in the ball’s atmosphere, a cadet using informal speech to a professor….”
Full throttle.
With the sudden charge, Samoyed moved too.
A red line.
The whip’s trajectory was clearly visible.
I crouched and sprang to evade while firing the side thrusters.
Accelerating faster toward the left, from where the whip came.
“Good judgment, but you didn’t think of this side.”
Samoyed tilted its shield upward.
On its left forearm, instead of a hand, a firearm was mounted.
“How motley.”
A high-mobility base, heavy armor, and even bombardment-type armament with its forearms swapped out for weapons.
Just throwing things together doesn’t make you stronger.
Wheeeeeeeeng.
And why does everyone love miniguns and machine guns so much?
High-explosives and missiles are way better.
I leaned my body forward, angling one elbow toward the ground.
“Elbow rocket.”
The elbow spewed blue flames, becoming another hover unit.
Drrrrrrrr!
I vectored the thrusters.
FWOOSH!
Snow blasted up from the ground, obscuring Ailey’s frame.
Maneuvering with three hovering axes.
Professor Flavia continued moving her gun muzzle to follow Ailey’s dark shadow.
CLANG!
“You hit me!”
From the moment of the first hit, the sounds of rounds hitting grew more frequent.
Ailey’s spasmodic, four-legged-beast-like movements grew even wilder.
Thud.
It was a brief moment.
In that instant when flying snow struck, deflecting the main camera and the gun muzzle, the sound of Ailey moving cut off too.
There was no reason to panic.
Flavia accelerated backward quickly and wiped clean the main camera.
With the gun muzzle facing forward, she turned the sensor direction this way and that.
“Hiding won’t help.”
I hid under the snow.
The main camera sensor couldn’t see anything.
Beep.
The thermal sensor was the same. The snow served as insulation, so there was no way to see.
But not being able to see goes for her too.
Since I opened the distance, the one at a disadvantage is Deep, hidden in the snow with obscured vision.
I just have to attack the moment I come out of the snow and survey the surroundings.
“As expected of Ian.”
FWOOSH!
Snow sprayed toward Samoyed.
It was no accident. It clearly blasted snow by venting its thrusters directly at Samoyed.
“How?!”
“Magnetic field sensor.”
Thanks to the heat weapon.
Because it heats using strong electrical current, turning on the magnetic field sensor makes heat weapons show up incredibly well.
With the charge, the pile bunker pierced Samoyed’s shield.
THWACK!
The stake penetrated the shield and embedded itself all the way into the arm. Since it wasn’t a high-explosive round, there was no detonation.
“Your aim was good, but your reaction speed is slower than I expected.”
The whip coiled around the pile bunker.
When I tried to force my arm free by reverse-thrusting, Samoyed started a contest of output too.
I can’t win.
Samoyed is a type that includes heavy armor. There’s no winning against it in raw output and weight class.
“If the stake detonates like this, I’ll only lose the shield and arm, but you have no shield, so it’s over.”
I couldn’t feel heat, but I could see the trapped arm slowly swelling.
A way to escape….
Beep.
“Really! What’s with moving like a beast the moment I step away! You otaku! You can’t do without me?”
“Help!”
“Wh-what?”
“Ailey! Help!”
The arm was swelling more and more.
Ailey, who had been silent for a moment, raised the right arm’s whip blade.
“Uu, hehehe… Informal speech is… kinda nice too.”
So much for the booze.
SHRRK!
And she severed the trapped left arm.
Samoyed’s mono-eye shook left and right as if surprised.
“Reverse thrust, now!”
Maintaining the thrust from the output contest, Ailey accelerated backward.
At the same time, tilting the side skirt, she fired a round.
KRA-THOOM!
Along with the explosion, she reversed the thruster output.
I endured the crushing gravitational acceleration with a yell.
Amid the explosion, a sharp whine rang out.
A red line.
Matching the whip’s trajectory, I crouched and rose to evade.
I crouched and rose about three times to avoid the whip.
“How dare a cadet teabag me!”
She’s only aiming for my upper body, what does she want me to do about it?
The moment she finished speaking, the whip aimed for my lower body.
“Ailey.”
“Yeah!”
I turned off the hover units.
The moment both feet touched the ground, I jumped back up.
Thrusters lofted the body upward, hovering briefly.
It was the result of research on the Wings of Fafnir.
First, crank the thrust way the fuck up.
Then even a humanoid shape can fly for a moment.
While falling, I rolled across the ground to reduce impact and raised my head.
Thirty meters.
It was outside the whip’s effective range.
Knowing this well, Samoyed dropped the whip.
Thud!
Samoyed grabbed the dagger ejected from its leg and accelerated its thrusters.
Faster than expected.
Until now, it had only used thrusters for output contests. It had been hiding its speed on purpose.
Before I could recover my posture, the tip of Samoyed’s dagger stabbed toward me first.
“Reverse thrust.”
KRA-THOOM!
With a brief burst of thrust, Ailey’s body lay completely flat on the ground.
Samoyed’s leg caught on Ailey, sending it floating in the air.
“Suddenly the reaction speed…!”
Got faster, of course.
Because Ailey is back.
But realizing that was too late.
Samoyed’s mono-eye and my goggle-eye passed each other.
What I needed to aim for was below that.
The whip blade pierced the core.