The Day of the Kaiser Exam
On the morning of the Kaiser exam, I headed to the hangar. Ian greeted me with a smug look on his face.
“Done. Thrusters.”
I was stunned. All I’d asked for was a backpack thruster. But Ian had gone and installed side thrusters too, expanding the entire unit. The fuel pipes were exposed because of the rushed job, but still—how the hell did he manage to get a main thruster and two side thrusters in just one day?
When I gave him a puzzled look, Ian just shrugged.
“Connections.”
A lowborn with connections? I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I nodded anyway. The entrance exam was right around the corner. I needed to get into the Titan fast.
The pilot suit hugged me so tightly it was uncomfortable. Ran, standing beside me, fidgeted nervously and muttered,
“I couldn’t get a catapult. No one would lend me one. This was the best I could borrow, though…”
This. In other words, a starting block. It was a crude kind of catapult that relied solely on the machine’s own thrust, shaped like the blocks track athletes use for a crouch start. It was a far cry from a real catapult. Still, for the A12 Titan, even a starting block like this could provide just enough help.
Even if my odds of winning dropped straight down, there wasn’t anywhere lower to fall.
“I-I-I’m f-f-fine.”
“Really?”
Ugh.
“N-no, not really.”
My honest answer made Ran’s face freeze for a second before she burst out laughing. She must’ve thought I was joking. I was dead serious.
Before I could say anything else, the core’s hatch slammed shut. I settled into the cockpit and synced my smartwatch. The screen lit up. At the same time, a still somewhat unfamiliar voice rang out from the speakers.
“Hey there, otaku boy. Good morning! Ready to win?”
“Hello, A12.”
“Whoa, that’s not just a bit? You’re actually using formal speech for real? Gonna keep that up?”
A12’s voice cut off for a moment. Then the speaker crackled and Ran’s voice came through instead.
A12 answered in my place.
“Starting block on standby~ I’ll be waiting!”
The Titan crouched down, planting both feet on the starting block. It braced its hands against the ground, lifted its head, and stared straight ahead. The whole body leaned slightly forward.
“Visual data may contain slight errors or time delays, so please make your own judgments and act accordingly based on the situation.”
Ran sounded a lot more energetic when she was operating. The supplied power and fuel began concentrating in the externally expanded thrusters. As the thrusters preheated, the heat reached the core, and my breathing grew heavier.
Now that I thought about it, there was something I wanted to say.
“Hey, A12.”
“Huh? You called me first? That’s a rare event.”
“I’ve been thinking… calling you A12 feels a bit off. How about Ailee?”
The inside of the core fell silent for a moment, then exploded with laughter.
“That is such an otaku thing to say! But… yeah. I like it! Deep.”
Her voice cut off again due to priority override. Instead, Ran’s tense voice rang out.
The line to the opponent was opened for the start declaration.
Saya Aslan stared straight ahead.
This was an unfair fight. Her opponent was a lowborn with zero piloting experience. He didn’t even have a personal machine and had to make do with second-hand goods from the academy. On the other hand, she was in perfect condition with no handicaps whatsoever.
“One minute until the exam begins, Lady Aslan.”
“Descend.”
The aerial transport unit detached from the Titan. A slight sensation of floating passed through her before the Titan slammed into the ground. A heavy clang rang out as a cloud of dust exploded upward.
Setting the imperial princess’s exam slot as number one—was it to increase the main exam’s buzz? Or was it the work of some shady bastards trying to expose the lowborn’s pathetic level? Either way, the academy was truly vicious. It was clear someone out there wanted to watch a lowborn get crushed.
“Lady Aslan. Due to insufficient data on the opponent, I will relay estimated information.”
“Permission granted.”
“The highest probability is a long-range bombardment type. In that case, allow minor hits to confirm position, then close in with evasive maneuvers and annihilate. Shall I brief the next operation as well?”
“No.”
Was strategy even necessary? What kind of unexpected situation could possibly come from a rookie like that? The number one possibility was something Saya could think up perfectly well on her own.
The time on the display counted down.
5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
The moment the exam began, in just three seconds, the communication line between her and the opponent connected. It was to confirm both sides were ready and signal the start of the test.
“Saya Aslan.”
“Deep.”
The names they declared were to announce the participants of this spar.
“I’m going in.”
“Dive.”
The following words signaled the opening of battle.
Boom!
Along with the opponent’s strange launch call, an explosion-like roar echoed from far away. As expected, a long-range surprise shot? Saya Aslan calmly twisted her beloved machine’s body. No shell had come.
“Huh?”
Boom!
The sound rang out again. The direction was the same, but the distance had grown much closer. It was movement her spatial awareness could easily detect.
Far too late, the operator shouted.
Target approaching! This speed is nearly ship-catapult level!
She had felt it. She had heard it. But she couldn’t believe it. For a brief moment she was dumbfounded, then she burst into laughter.
A rookie piloting a second-hand Titan, daring to challenge her while she rode a machine reserved for the imperial family.
“Show me.”
That the difference in Titan performance wasn’t the decisive gap in power.
Watching the streamlined Titan racing toward her from afar, Saya smiled.
“Deep, wake up! Wake up!”
Gasp.
I opened my eyes. Just as Ailee had warned. A crouching launch accompanied by thruster thrust was too much for this body to handle. The gravitational acceleration had been insane. My vision went completely black for a second and I lost consciousness. Only after the shock absorption system finally mitigated the g-forces did my sight return.
“Target confirmed 100 meters ahead!”
Even without Ran shouting, I could roughly tell, but thanks for the heads-up anyway.
What I saw on the screen was a red Titan. The single horn on its head marked it as a command unit. The flashy gold decorations proved it belonged to the imperial family.
Titan, Kaiser.
A machine in a completely different league from Ailee. The Kaiser raised its hand. From its shoulder, a greatsword as large as the Titan’s own torso was drawn. The sheer power it took to wield that massive blade so lightly sent chills down my spine.
Chills or not, I still had to say it.
“A12, visual on Kaiser! Commencing engagement!”
Our strategy was simple. Sudden approach and ambush. Use the opponent’s ignorance of my specialty to seize the advantage, then end the fight in a short decisive battle before the low battery or output issues became obvious.
If there was one specialty I’d honed playing Titan Core, it was ultra-high-speed maneuvers. The voluptuous, thick, streamlined chest core that minimized air resistance. The lightweight frame. The thigh parts that output far more power and were thicker than the rest of the body. Ailee was a high-speed maneuver Titan that felt like it had been built exactly for me.
Clank!
I moved the buttons, stick, and pedals all at once.
“Let’s go!”
Hovering. Ailee’s feet lifted off the ground with the same acceleration. At the same time, the side thrusters that had just opened spewed fire like an explosion. A massive turn with momentum that didn’t match the giant frame at all. The same ultra-high-speed acrobatic maneuver I’d shown during the academy entrance exam.
But the opponent wasn’t a bottom-tier AI. She was a first-rate pilot of the battlefield who treated such tricks like they were nothing.
“Don’t think I’ll give you my back!”
I hadn’t even considered it.
Clack. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The standard small pistol fired repeatedly, striking the Kaiser’s blade. That enormous sword, with its size and mass, served as both a close-combat weapon and an ultra-high-strength shield. There was no way a standard small weapon could break or pierce it.
This was the exact opposite situation from the academy entrance exam I’d taken before. An enemy wielding a massive close-combat weapon. Me equipped with standard long-range armaments. By common sense, I should use thrust to back away and keep up long-range harassment. That was the only path to survival.
The Kaiser seemed to understand this too. It accelerated toward me, spewing flames. The sight of it charging while shielding its body with the blade looked like a giant wall rushing straight at me.
She was probably yelling. Telling me to run. To fight with everything I had. To find the right answer.
If I acted according to common sense, this was a fight I could never win.
“Ailee, how strong is the chest armor?”
“Super tough!”
Then we’d ram it. The opponent wasn’t a wall—she was just a giant plank covering her own eyes.
“Now.”
Hovering off. The massive weight dropped toward the ground. The enormous thrust turned directly into kinetic energy, forcing the feet into the ground and anchoring them. At the same time, I lowered my stance as much as possible. The streamlined body became a giant obstacle and slammed into both the blade and the Kaiser.
The moment of impact, the Kaiser’s body flipped up into the air.
“Ugh!”
Ailee’s frame rang out with a heavy clang and vibrated. The fundamental difference in armor and weight made my whole body sting. But I had broken her posture.
Flames erupted from the Kaiser’s entire body as it floated in the air. The thrusters were automatically correcting its balance. The airborne body spun rapidly. If it was AI-controlled automatic correction, it would be impossible to perfectly grip and control the sword in its hand. There had to be a clear opening.
That’s what I thought as I thrust the gun barrel backward—only to realize.
“That’s not automatic control?”
From extremely close range, a voice slipped through the connected comms.
“Correct.”
This wasn’t a game. It was reality. The opponent wasn’t an AI. She was a veteran pilot who had crossed countless lines of fire and could pull off maneuvers beyond imagination. I wasn’t the only one capable of movements that defied expectations.
“Truly impressive. If it had been another Titan carrying a stupid AI, that would have been a troublesome blow.”
Tang!
The standard small pistol’s bullet slammed into the blade and bounced off.
“However, a pilot who has completed the imperial family’s harsh training neither trusts, uses, nor even carries an AI.”
The Kaiser, having finished its balance correction, landed on the ground and re-accelerated. Ailee’s body, knocked back from the collision, rolled across the floor. The thrusters for balance correction didn’t fire. Of course they didn’t.
“The only thing expanded was the thrusters! We didn’t get extra propellant!”
As I listened to Ran’s scream-like cry and aimed the gun barrel forward, the giant blade filled my entire field of vision.
“No.”
One-sided. After that, there was no other way to describe it.