075. Power-Hiding Nerd (2)
075. Hidden Powerhouse (2)
That was what happened yesterday.
A day passed. And today.
After finishing everything for Eve—giving her a new body and job and even assigning her room 203—I headed to the command room.
Unlike yesterday, this was during working hours.
So when I reached the command room, someone was already there on duty.
Alicia.
"...You've arrived?"
There was nothing particularly different about her appearance.
She looked exactly like she always did.
Specifically, her beautiful platinum-blonde hair was tied in a braided bun.
Her emerald-like eyes and her attire—the only one in Krädel that strictly adhered to uniform regulations.
Her large bust, barely concealed even by that modest uniform.
And her cold, indifferent gaze, as if she had no interest in worldly affairs.
Everything should have been the same.
'...She looks especially adorable today.'
Why was that?
Was it because I had found out she was one of the top-tier snipers in the city?
Of course not.
After all, I wasn't a shallow person who fell in love just because I learned someone had good specs.
No, really. The truth was, I had always cherished Alicia. I had loved her deeply all along.
It was only that I had realized it yesterday.
"...What have you been staring at so intently for a while now?"
Had she noticed my heartfelt gaze?
Alicia asked as if she found it unpleasant.
"Ah, well."
I prepared to speak.
But before I could, Alicia began rattling off what she wanted to say as if she were swamped.
"If you have nothing else to do, could you compile the data I sent you yesterday and send it back? If we don't process it by noon, the workload will increase."
"No."
"There are also many omissions in the settlement documents you revised the day before yesterday. I've marked the parts that need corrections, so please rewrite them."
"Listen."
"Also, please give me the contact information of the contractors you called when repairing the bathroom a while back. I need the expenditure statement."
"Alicia."
I finally managed to speak.
"You don't have to come in here starting tomorrow."
"...Pardon?"
Alicia asked as if I were spouting yet more nonsense.
I answered without hesitation.
"I hired Eve as Krädel's operator and paperwork handler. I'll take care of the documents you mentioned for now. You just handle the handover of your duties first."
Alicia answered a moment later.
"Understood."
And then she started drafting the handover documents.
I was, to put it mildly, dumbfounded.
"Is that all the reaction I get? Don't you have anything else to say?"
"No. Unless you want me to perform a tap dance of joy?"
Alicia answered with her usual expressionless face.
What would Alicia performing a tap dance of joy actually look like? I kind of wanted to see it at least once.
Suppressing my curiosity, I shook my head.
"I mean, if you're dismissed from your post, common sense says you'd ask something like, "Then what do I do now?""
"Isn't it a layoff?"
As if.
"Unfortunately, you aren't losing your job. Instead, you'll be transferred to a different post."
"What kind of post?"
"A combat soldier, of course."
"I'm sorry, but I don't do combat."
Alicia said that without a single second of hesitation.
I wasn't even surprised. I'd expected that exact answer.
This exact conversation had been repeated about 200 times already. 'Could you do some combat?' 'I don't do combat.'
Of course, not all 200 of those requests were completely serious.
I had given up around the 30th time.
It was because I thought there was no need to forcibly reassign her as a combat soldier.
The reasons were quite varied.
1. Around that time, Laika started pulling her weight, and the demand for combat personnel had significantly decreased.
2. It was more rational to fix the other two rather than Alicia, who at least helped well with paperwork.
3. Most importantly, I thought she wasn't that big of a deal.
Frankly, I had thought she was just a C-rank asset—useful if developed, but not valuable enough to beg for her cooperation. A marginal asset at best.
I reflected on that past.
No, really. I deeply repent. I was wrong. I will never ignore Alicia again.
So——
"I'm ordering you as your Commander. From now on, you will serve as Krädel's combatant, specifically as a sniper."
"(Provided that I don't do combat.)"
"Don't intercept my words and insert weird provisos."
When I pointed that out, Alicia asked,
"More importantly, what is this about? Has asking me to join combat missions become some daily quest you make a token attempt at and then abandon? Why are you suddenly specifying "sniper" this time?"
"Why else do you think?"
I thrust the pre-printed data at Alicia.
It was the data sheet for Alicia's old specs that Rinne had dug out of her computer for me the night before.
According to those specs, Alicia was one of the most powerful snipers in the entire military.
To borrow Rinne's expression, she was a 'human-rights character' whose mere inclusion in a squad changed the quality of a battle.
"You'd better not even think about denying it."
I had finished verifying the data.
After all, the one who found it was Rinne, who was dedicated to messing with me.
I wondered if Rinne had fabricated a fake data sheet just to mess with me again, so I checked it from several angles. It was genuine.
Alicia really had been an S-rank sniper, at least until five years ago when the document was written.
Alicia responded with a long sigh tinged with contempt.
"I had no intention of denying it. The data you showed me really are my old specs."
At that, I burst out in indignation.
"And you still managed to keep me fooled all this time?!"
"Deceiving you? What do you mean?"
What do I mean?
"You had specs like this, and all this time you've just been sitting here doing paperwork?!"
It wasn't that I meant to say paperwork was a trivial task.
I fully acknowledged and appreciated what she had contributed on that front.
But if I had known she was this capable—and if she had lent us even a fraction of that ability—the journey so far would have been much easier.
For example, if an S-rank sniper had accompanied us to Ice Shell, we could have crushed the Frost Phantom almost effortlessly.
And if she'd accompanied us to the Cradle of Silence, Rinne wouldn't have been pierced by Eve and mentally contaminated.
All told, we might have avoided around five situations where we had to risk our lives.
But Alicia had kept quiet and sat here tapping away at her keyboard.
"Isn't that too much? Let alone me, what about Laika and Rinne?"
"...I've been regretting not being able to help them directly."
Alicia let out another sigh.
"I believe I need to correct one misconception. The data you showed me describes me five years ago. I am no longer the excellent sniper I was then. More importantly, I am now almost incapable of combat at all."
What did she mean by that?
"Are you saying you've suffered a stat loss?"
"There has been a loss, but that's a secondary issue."
"Then what's the main problem?"
Alicia answered my question with one of her own.
"How much do you know about sniper-specialist biodroids, Commander? Are you familiar with their standardized component configurations and operating methods?"
"Well... I think I know the basics."
A sniper was a combat soldier who used projectile weapons like bows or guns to strike enemies from a distance.
And as everyone knew, long-range projectile weapons had extremely low efficiency compared to short-range weapons.
That was because a projectile weapon's phase energy dropped sharply in proportion to its distance from the user.
Using a sniper rifle as an example, its power halved just a few meters after leaving the muzzle.
After a dozen or so meters, it lost almost all striking force.
For that reason, projectile weapons were usually operated as secondary arms, and it was common practice to deploy designated marksmen as assistants to powerful close-quarters assault soldiers.
The reason the long-range sniper branch existed despite this was because there was a skill that exceptionally enabled long-range sniping.
Namely, [Sniping].
When [Sniping] was activated, long-range attacks no longer suffered phase-power attenuation.
At around level 10, you could hit an enemy beyond the horizon with the same power as a point-blank shot.
...Of course, a completely overpowered skill like that didn't come without drawbacks.
First of all, the Snipe skill module itself was incredibly expensive, and its side effects during activation were extreme.
When Snipe was activated, the user became capable of sensing all biological phases within the expanded effective range.
However, it was impossible to contain such a vast amount of sensation in a single body.
Just a few seconds after activation, the whole body became so sensitive that even a mere touch would cause convulsions. A dozen or so seconds beyond that, and the mind broke down.
Laika's [Rampage] had a similar problem, though to a lesser degree. Unfortunately, [Sniping] had an even more complicated issue.
For one thing, the side effects of activating [Sniping] could not be mitigated by raising the skill level the way Laika's [Rampage] could.
Instead, the body parts had to be adjusted accordingly to accommodate that much sensation.
The most crucial part of this adjustment process was adding a 'Telescope.'
The Telescope.
A sniper-exclusive part not installed in standard biodroids, it was a type of artificial eyeball.
The primary effect of this Telescope was to block out emotions when in use and focus the mind solely on a single target.
Additionally, it enhanced visual acuity and reaction speed to enable extreme long-distance sniping.
With this Telescope, a sniper could endure the storm of emotion triggered by [Sniping] for up to several dozen seconds.
Therefore, deploying a sniper required equipping them with a Telescope instead of a standard artificial eyeball.
"Thank you for the kind explanation."
Alicia, who had been silently listening to my story, remarked casually.
I asked, somewhat taken aback.
"So what? Why did you make me explain this?"
"I asked to confirm your understanding of the Telescope. Fortunately, you understand it perfectly. As you said, the Telescope is an essential dedicated component for operating a sniper."
Alicia said that, and then added nonchalantly.
"I happen to have lost that Telescope."
...Come again?
"What do you mean, you lost the Telescope?"
"I mean exactly what I said. I lost the Telescope in my left eye, so it has been replaced with a standard biodroid artificial eye. That left me with slight anisometropia as a bonus, but I can see, so it is acceptable."
Alicia pointed at her left eye as she spoke.
Come to think of it, Alicia had always worn a monocle over that left eye.
I had always assumed the monocle was just a style choice. Had it been foreshadowing for this...? I spent a moment thinking about that.
Then, dumbfounded, I asked.
"No, how do you lose something that's in your eye?"
"It just happened that way."
Alicia shrugged.
Though it wasn't a matter to shrug about.
Was she proud of it? Losing such a precious possession.
"In any case, I lost it. Therefore I cannot activate [Sniping], and without [Sniping] I have little operational value. Therefore I will not fight. QED."
Was that something to boast about so proudly?
No, besides that.
"What about using another weapon? Your durability and strength are A-rank. Even with a sword or spear, you'd be more than capable."
"I wish that were possible, but my entire body is custom-built for sniping. My synchronization rate with weapons other than a sniper rifle is abysmally low, so in another position I would have little more combat power than Rinne."
In short, it meant she was so weak that even I, a human, might be able to somehow manage against her.
So, at this point, I had no choice but to throw out the fundamental question.
"But if losing the Telescope is the problem, can't you just make a new one?"
To which Alicia answered without a moment's hesitation.
"I don't want to."
...Huh?
"You don't want to? Why?"
Alicia was lost in thought for a moment, then answered.
"Let's just say I dislike the manufacturing method. Frankly, it is unpleasant. I would rather kill myself than attempt that method."
"...Just what kind of manufacturing method is it?"
Still, could there really be a task so repulsive that she'd rather give up being an S-rank sniper and become a paper-pusher?
As it turned out, surprisingly, there was.