I wiped my face.
My hand slid right off, slick with sweat.
I looked at the screen again.
The transmitted message appeared once more.
“I won.”
Suddenly, Aili rushed in and hugged me.
It was a hologram, so I felt nothing at all.
Still, I hugged her back for the moment.
“You won!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Great job out there!”
“Why is Aili happier than I am?”
No answer.
Aili’s hand moved back and forth near my head.
She seemed to be patting me.
If you’re going to do this, you might as well go back to the dorm and use your physical body.
As I waited for Aili to move aside, a communication signal beeped.
“Move aside already.”
Kaiser tapped Aili’s core with a thud.
“Aili, I can’t see to operate.”
“I’ll just move you myself!”
Screeeeech.
As Aili raised her body, the frame vibrated.
It was a sound that didn’t normally occur.
The sound of joints worn to their limit, thrashed hard enough to grind them down.
It was similar to tires getting destroyed after just one lap in F1.
“Did you hear that just now? At least get the joints magnetic-coated.”
“Right?”
Another thing to spend money on.
Even after going through so many customizations and upgrades, there was still something I could do for Aili.
“So it is.”
The Imperial Princess let out a sigh and planted Gram into the ground.
“I suppose that’s the limit of a half-penny wretch who can’t even shoot straight.”
“Excuse me?”
She tried to get up, using Gram as a cane.
Since she was staggering slightly, I reached out to help, but Kaiser knocked my hand away.
“Last time, I sparred with Aaron.”
Even though one of his legs was broken, he would be able to walk with a cane.
Still, a retrieval drone would arrive if we waited.
For now, I walked alongside Kaiser.
“So?”
“I lost.”
The Princess had already lost to Aaron as well.
“Aaron Dyke has become stronger than me.”
Sparring between cadets is also reflected in grades.
If the second seat loses to the third seat, their positions are bound to switch.
Kaiser clenched his fist tight.
“Did you get a hint from Aaron to use a heat weapon?”
“No?”
Slowly, strength drained from his fist.
“I see. He used the exact same strategy of shaving down my greatsword with a heat weapon to block thruster usage. That time, Aaron didn’t give me time to draw Gram.”
How unromantic.
No, if it was to win, it was only natural to prevent someone from drawing Gram, which anyone could tell was a final weapon.
Still, how did he endure the reveal that it was a scabbard instead of a greatsword?
As I was looking at Gram, the Princess answered in his stead.
“To be exact, the moment the greatsword was neutralized, he cut off Kaiser’s arm. He couldn’t even draw Gram.”
Earlier, the Princess had said she’d never drawn Gram on the battlefield either.
Since it was equipment she had never used or shown before, she must not have known such a thing existed.
If there had been any sign of drawing it, he would have waited, but Aaron didn’t even give him the chance and just cut him down.
“I’m growing curious about your rank.”
It was a flat tone.
“Now even that conservative faculty won’t be able to deny it.”
Professor Zeke had said that even based on the midterm exam, my grades could be single-digit ranked.
Since I’d beaten the Princess, the current second seat, it was settled now.
“The fact that there are commoners and outcasts who surpass nobles.”
It was the tone of someone forcing himself to accept a defeat he didn’t want.
I didn’t add anything more.
Receiving congratulations from Ian and Ran, I headed to the dormitory, exhausted.
The moment I opened the door, a gyaru robot maid stood waiting.
“Bath first? Food first? Or…”
“A bath.”
I’d sweated buckets.
“Want help?”
“Don’t you dare come in.”
Now I had to lock the door even in the dormitory.
I was so embarrassed I could die.
***
The final exam was over.
It was the same as saying vacation had started.
It didn’t really feel like my first year was over.
At first, I’d taken the academy exam simply to survive.
I’d never even imagined I would beat the Imperial Princess.
And I’d never thought about the aftermath, either.
Immediately after the exam, I had to suffer through an enormous number of messages for a week.
They weren’t like internet spam; most were messages favorable to me.
It felt like every meritocratic noble in the Empire had contacted me.
For about a day, I tried to check all the mail myself, but from the next day, I asked Aili to handle it.
In any case, most of the messages could be divided into three broad categories.
The first was asking me to come to their front.
I’d already been promised deployment to the Northern Front during vacation.
Even if it was about after graduation, since things were looking good with House Keria, I’d probably end up going there anyway.
The second was offers of sponsorship.
I checked them one by one and asked Ran to look into only the ones that seemed okay.
Ian was happy that I wouldn’t need to save money on customization at all going forward.
The last were people wanting to make a connection.
In other words, they wanted to set me up with women, or asked if I was thinking about engagement, or if I wanted to escape outcast status.
I ignored them all.
Outcast status could be resolved by accumulating achievements on the battlefield after graduating from the academy.
Perhaps after being dispatched to the Northern Front this vacation, I might even be able to aim for commoner or noble status with those achievements.
Actually, just thinking about what happened on the Western Front, it wouldn’t be strange for me to become a baron.
They say a barony is usually awarded for destroying dozens of enemy units in a single battle or carrying out the most dangerous and important role to demolish a key building.
I’d destroyed a drone factory too, so I’d accomplished enough to become a baron.
Cases where outcasts are immediately granted noble status are truly rare, so even if I received it, it would take at least six months.
Ian’s situation was special, so he had to remain an outcast to avoid getting entangled in political issues.
Ran was skilled enough as an operator that he’d become a commoner someday by accumulating merits.
In any case, I had no intention of borrowing others’ strength for something I could do with my own ability.
It would only increase the debts I had to repay.
Perhaps after this Northern deployment, the Imperial Family might call me to offer a title.
Imagining it made me feel a little good.
I should exercise while thinking about that today.
“Going to work out again today?”
“Yeah.”
“Have a good one!”
“We’re going together via smartwatch anyway.”
Every day since vacation started had been the same.
Exercise, study, then come back and melt the hours away with Aili.
Aside from passing time with Aili, it wasn’t a very fun day.
Even a favorite movie gets boring after ten viewings; a day repeated hundreds of times couldn’t be fun.
Even though reality is stranger than fiction, that’s exactly why people long for fictional stories.
Since I was slowly getting some free time, maybe I should pick up another hobby.
Since I was interested in customization, trying my hand at engineering wouldn’t be bad.
Should I join an engineering club like Zeus?
I just needed to contact Professor Sumeragi before the second semester started.
“Hooo, hoo, hooouk.”
“So the allied forces of the Northern and Southern Fronts are operating under the name Liberation Army, and they don’t spare resources in supporting the rebel forces within the Empire?”
“That’s… something I… already know.”
Like last vacation, my studying was on auto-hunt via Aili.
Studying while doing a plank was impossible.
Instead, I found something more intense than a treadmill.
“Hooo, hooouk, hooo.”
“Hard?”
“I feel… like I’m going… to heaven.”
Stepmill.
The thing called the Stairway to Heaven in the previous world.
Unlike the plank, the bastard who invented the stepmill is a criminal beyond all doubt.
Even in England, where you can look up anything bizarre in history, it’s a device legally banned for being cruel punishment.
What kind of crazy bastard thought of making exercise equipment modeled after torture devices?
Did a torture specialist who made the stepmill change jobs to become a trainer?
“Didn’t I tell you to only do one of the two, outcast?”
I got off the stepmill.
My hand moved first.
Thwack. A towel slapped into my hand.
Aaron didn’t even look this way, perhaps thinking I’d catch anything he threw from the start.
“Why do you keep throwing things at me?”
“Because throwing is faster.”
“Do you do that to other people too?”
“I tend to. Why?”
What an insensitive guy.
“Um, I’ve wanted to say this for a while.”
“What.”
“Throwing things at people is a habit of yours, isn’t it?”
Aaron’s expression furrowed sharply.
“What does that have to do with you?”
“When you marry the Imperial Princess later, you’ll throw the ring too, right?”
“You little bastard.”
Bip-bip-bip-bip-beep.
The moment Aaron tried to come at me, the alarm rang.
Since it was vacation after exams, the alarm was predictable.
“Anyway, your rank is lower, so you’re just trying to get a rise out of me with that crap. I know exactly what you’re doing.”
“This time you don’t know.”
“This bastard?”
I raised my smartwatch.
The rank announcement appeared.
“This is it, right?”
“That’s right.”
To be honest, I was expecting it to some degree.
I’d beaten Aaron in the midterm exam.
Based on individual combat, it was a judged draw, but the team battle itself was a victory.
The judged draw probably changed later too.
After I filed an objection, the academy’s judgment changed as well.
That was why, in the revenge match against Kaiser, I’d suppressed him until the end even after breaking the main camera.
Since breaking the main camera alone didn’t decide the match, a definite finish was needed.
I filed my objection before Professor Zeke had even disclosed that the professors had objected to my rank.
If the changed standards were applied, the individual combat with Aaron would also be judged as my victory.
I checked Aaron’s expression before the rankings.
He was glaring at me.
1st place, Revan.
As expected.
2nd place, Deep.
I was sure of this one.
3rd place, Aaron Dyke.
4th place, Saya Aslan.
The positions of Aaron and the Princess changing was a bit different from what I’d expected.
“Hey, outcast.”
“Now that my rank is higher too, please call me by my name.”
His glaring eyes furrowed sharply, and this time he gritted his teeth.
“Hey, Deep.”
“Yes.”
“I was going to buy you something to congratulate you, but I changed my mind. Figure it out yourself.”
“Uh, it’s fine if you just keep calling me outcast.”
“Shut up.”
I pestered him to buy me something until the very end.
I got protein.
It wasn’t bad.