Dancing was harder than I’d expected.
At some point, Karina had disappeared from sight too, and I was so tired I didn’t even want to move.
When Ailey brought over a few snacks, we ate them together and rested for a while, and only went back inside around the time the music within began to quiet down.
“It’s kind of empty now?”
“It is.”
Ailey still wouldn’t let go of my hand.
Now that I thought about it, she seemed to be taking into account that I’d taken off my assistive device, which made it hard for me to walk.
It seemed the noisier part of the evening was over.
Should we head back?
I felt bad for Ailey, who had even customized her body and put on a dress, but places like ballrooms really didn’t suit me.
“Should we go back?”
“Ailey, I’m sorry, but—huh?”
“I’m kind of over it now? I was shocked there was less to do than I thought!”
There was no way.
There were plenty of things to enjoy all over the ballroom. There were a lot of people too, and if Ailey wanted, she could have stayed in the ballroom alone, leaving me behind.
“Ailey, you don’t have to do that.”
“I totally want to go back. Let’s just go!”
So it had been obvious I was starting to get tired.
“Let’s have dinner, watch the dancing in the main hall, and then go.”
“Ah, then should we?”
She didn’t refuse at all.
As expected, now that we were here, she definitely wanted to enjoy herself a bit more.
“I’ll rest a little longer, so Ailey, think about your capacity and eat in moderation.”
“I’ll bring you some now and then!”
“Yes, yes.”
After sending Ailey off for a moment, I sat down.
When she was next to me, we stood out too much, and dealing with the stares was exhausting.
It had been a long time since just feeling people’s gazes on me drained my stamina so fast.
The idea of coming to a ball attended by academy cadets in a backless dress was ridiculous enough, but I couldn’t understand Lord for making it for her either.
When Ailey spoke to a young lady resting in the corner, the other party would first be surprised and flustered, and only belatedly would the conversation continue.
Saying the chandelier was pretty, that the cake was super delicious, and even touching another young lady’s accessories while calling them pretty without a care in the world.
No matter how I looked at it, it just felt like watching someone live off their face.
It was a relief her body’s face was just as pretty as the model. Seriously.
If she hadn’t been pretty and acted like that, someone probably would’ve told them to kick her out.
“I must admit that the existence of a partner is indeed one’s mirror. She is an unusual woman, just like you.”
That manner of speaking, like a red, horned Titan.
The voice had clearly come from behind me, but I felt like I knew who it was without turning around.
“Your Highness.”
When I tried to rise from my seat, the princess grabbed my shoulder and firmly pressed me back down.
“There is no need to stand and greet me. The imperial family does not demand etiquette even from friends.”
“Friends?”
Me?
Why?
“Did you not learn etiquette from the chairwoman, who is a member of the imperial family?”
“I did.”
“Could there be any greater expression of closeness than teaching etiquette?”
Chairwoman Faraya never taught me anything like that.
Maybe she deliberately didn’t.
So she’d made an advance bid on me from the other nobles like I was a thorium ingot.
Last time, when the chairwoman said she was showing off her connection with me, I’d wondered what she meant.
The princess dragged over a chair and sat down beside me.
“Ah, where did you leave Aaron?”
“He was only being noisy and nagging too much.”
Wasn’t that because she was a princess and yet hadn’t brought even one person with her?
Princess Saya shook her head as if she was sick and tired of it.
“In any case, your actions have become quite political now.”
“I-I really don’t know anything about that.”
“Are you being consistent in feigning ignorance?”
Her narrowed eyes bothered me.
Last time, she’d asked if I was a spy, and now I was almost curious what she would say next.
“Your partner is not human.”
“Shi—”
I immediately covered my mouth.
I’d almost actually cursed.
The princess looked at me, then shrugged.
“A human whose face is symmetrical to that degree cannot exist. I thought her face was excessively aligned and beautiful, and from then on, I began to sense something alien.”
So the problem was that the custom job had been done too well.
“I have no intention of telling anyone. Pretending to have a woman is also a kind of weapon. It is the same as declaring that you cannot be won over through romantic relations.”
The princess nodded with great satisfaction.
“At the moment your value is endlessly soaring, you appeared at the ball accompanied by a beauty, and ultimately induced a member of the Luna family to test you.”
I’d just come to the ball because I’d had a tailcoat made.
“With your existing connection to the imperial family, inducing the sponsorship and support of the Luna family and placing a foot in both the imperial faction and the noble faction was an excellent judgment. For you, born a commoner, there would have been no better choice.”
“Um, Your Highness?”
“However, bear this in mind, Deep.”
The princess spoke in a warning tone, then lowered her head to meet my eyes.
“In every era, those who set foot in two powers have never met a good end. One day, you will have to choose one decisively.”
I said that’s not it.
I said I don’t know anything about politics.
Why does she just say whatever she wants and leave?
***
We ate dinner at the ball and watched the other cadets dance too.
It was surprisingly simple.
Apparently, a very long time ago, when they held balls, they made them extremely splendid and decorated them lavishly.
These days, they said, things had been greatly simplified.
I’d definitely only meant to watch, but before I knew it, I was dancing with Ailey while leaning on my cane and holding only one of her hands.
Ailey dragged me out, so I had no choice.
I felt far too many gazes on me, but I decided to just endure it.
Overall, everything the princess said was wrong.
Still, one thing was right.
I had no intention of being won over through romantic relationships or women.
So it was much better to show everyone the sight of me dancing with Ailey instead.
There would be no annoying business in the future, and I didn’t want to dance with any woman other than Ailey.
This time, my foot didn’t get stepped on.
That was a relief.
“Shall we celebrate Deep’s rise in rank together?”
I’d thought that during social dancing, you had to keep dancing the whole time, but apparently you could step out and rest in the middle.
Thanks to that, after dancing for a while, I came out partway through and sat at the table where Ran and Ian were.
No wonder there were so many people just watching from the side instead of dancing.
Come to think of it, it made no sense for people to dance for hours on end.
People running around the field for hours while being chased by Professor Zeke made no sense either, but that still happened, so I’d naturally assumed they danced for hours too.
“A little celebration for seventeenth place too.”
“Ian, have you ever drunk champagne through your ribs?”
“Congrats.”
Maybe Ran had been infected by Ian, because she’d become quite violent.
Surely she hadn’t caught it from me. I wasn’t a violent person.
Ailey raised her glass and lightly clinked it against the champagne glass Ran had lifted.
Then she held the glass out to me.
“Drink!”
“I don’t drink alcohol.”
“Drink!”
“I’m telling you, I really don’t drink.”
“Then when am I ever going to hear you speak casually to me!”
Probably never, for the rest of my life.
Back then, I’d drunk only to ease the burden of controlling things alone, not because I wanted to drink.
As long as Ailey was there, I’d never have to control a Titan alone anyway.
Besides, when I drank again after so long, my body couldn’t handle it.
Honestly, it didn’t taste good either.
But that wasn’t what mattered.
“Are you two partners, by any chance?”
Ran and Ian both froze for a moment at the same time.
“But I’m the top student.”
“I asked if you were partners.”
“Ian, I’m telling you to just purely congratulate someone.”
So they absolutely wouldn’t answer.
I guess that was their concept.
Ailey sidled up next to me and whispered.
“It really didn’t show normally, right?”
“Right.”
“I bet they actually do all sorts of things behind the scenes, huh?”
“You think I won’t be able to crack your skull if you’re in a female body?”
“Sorry! I take it back!”
Ian moved his hand toward his waist, then stopped.
There was no way he’d brought a spanner all the way to the ballroom, so it was probably just a habitual action.
Surely he wasn’t actually that insane.
“There was something I wanted to say, so it’s a good thing Deep and Ailey happened to come this way.”
I’d been about to look closely at Ian’s waist, but Ran spoke to me, so I lifted my head for now.
“Actually, at the same time the results were announced, a separate message came to the Operator Department. Naturally, it was about the next exam.”
This announcement of results had been much slower than usual.
Normally, results were announced a week after the exam ended, but this time, they were released in the middle of the ball after a whole month had passed.
They probably used the results announcement as part of the ball’s events.
Because of that, it seemed the notice for the final exam overlapped with this period too.
If they opened a ball and then announced the final exam, who could enjoy themselves?
Ah, pilots don’t analyze information or do customizations, so I guess they could.
No wonder I’d been seeing an especially large number of Pilot Department students.
…Isn’t the academy fucking too much?
“This time as well, they’ll be conducting both team battles and individual battles. Deep will be participating in the individual battle. You won’t have to worry about match-fixing like last time.”
The abusing had been very bewildering.
The teams of Jude and Rob, who had done the abusing, were all basically expelled, but after experiencing something like that, I couldn’t stand team battles and didn’t want to do them.
Maybe the chairwoman or Professor Zeke had taken that into account and deliberately put me in the individual match.
“You can already guess the opponent, can’t you?”
“Yes.”
“It’s the princess!”
At Ailey’s words, Ran nodded.
“That’s why there are two main strategies I’ve thought of this time.”
“Whoa, didn’t you come up with those super fast?”
“They’re strategies an ordinary operator would be able to think of.”
A hologram of Ailey’s Titan body appeared above the smartwatch.
It was a little different from usual, but it was a form I’d seen before.
“A bombardment-type custom?”
With missile ports additionally attached to both shoulders, the side skirts, and the lower body, its firepower had been raised.
Unlike when we fought Lord, we had plenty of money now, so we could fire missiles with sufficiently powerful firepower as much as we wanted.
“Ailey is much faster than Kaiser. When we fought Kaiser last time, we lost because of the fuel issue, but now fuel won’t be a problem. If you run while whittling down its armor with missiles, you can win.”
It was, in fact, the strategy Levan had used against the princess.
By thoroughly running away, he had eventually damaged the left elbow joint, then seized the opening that created and won.
It was a stable strategy against the princess, who only fought in close combat, but—
“Will it work again?”
It had been proven to be an effective strategy against the princess.
That also meant the princess would absolutely have prepared a countermeasure for this strategy.
I didn’t know what she would prepare, but the fact that she would prepare was certain.
“That’s why this is the second strategy I thought of.”
Ian grabbed the hologram and flipped it backward.
This hologram was somewhat familiar, but it was a form I was seeing for the first time.
“The thrusters have been enhanced, and what’s that attached to the back?”
“A sword.”
What?
“The princess has already invested in all-direction monitor technology and taken the corresponding data as well. The imperial family incorporates technology into cores incredibly fast. The all-direction monitor may already have been applied.”
Since the imperial family’s core wasn’t the core of the Luna Count family, the speed at which technology was reflected in the core would be much faster.
And there was one more technology the princess had requested from the all-direction monitor.
“The shooting assist function too?”
“Correct.”
It wasn’t a shooting assist function reliant on the Luna family’s artificial intelligence technology.
It was a shooting assist function that mobilized images, LiDAR, thermal imaging, radar, and magnetic fields all at once.
The best way to screw over the princess, who had that kind of shooting assist function installed and had prepared for long-range combat, was, conversely, close combat.
“In other words, a true sword match.”
“Aha.”
Ailey laughed and poked me in the side.
“Otaku like this kind of thing, right?”
I do.
A true sword match.