The Squad's True Colors
The cockpit hatch opened with a heavy clunk. “Hatch opening~!”
The moment I stepped out, Revan was the first person I saw.
“You actually know how to handle a heavy armor type too?”
I already had an answer prepared for that question. Ailee had asked me the exact same thing, and I obviously couldn’t tell her it was because of my past life.
“Deep duels Aron every Friday, right? It’s only natural I’d know at least the basics of how a heavy armor type should fight against a high-mobility one!”
Ailee answered in my place. I normally use a high-mobility frame, while Aron uses heavy armor. It’s pretty common at the academy to learn how to pilot different Titan types through sparring.
“Ah, yeah. That makes sense, I guess?” Revan nodded as if convinced and held out his hand.
I grabbed it and climbed out. A beat later, another heavy clunk echoed as the White Bunny’s hatch opened.
“You!”
She couldn’t see me even when she called out. The White Bunny was extremely low-profile. Karina came clanging up the stairs in a hurry.
“H-how many meters tall is the White Bunny, exactly?”
“13.8m,” Ian answered curtly.
Since we were roughly sixteen meters above ground, that meant she’d just leaped up the height of an entire story. And that was after pushing her high-mobility Titan to full speed. Was she okay?
Sure enough, when Karina finally reached the top, she grabbed the railing and doubled over, panting hard to catch her breath.
“You!”
There she went again.
“Were you hiding your real skill?! Or have you been fooling everyone until now?!”
“Deep duels Aron every Friday…”
“I never asked your AI!”
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Her footsteps rang out. Karina marched right up to my face and stared at me intently. The bright lights inside the hangar made her sweat-soaked teal hair sparkle brilliantly. I wasn’t sure if it looked pretty, but it definitely hurt my eyes.
“You learned how to pilot heavy armor through sparring? There’s no way that kind of skill comes from just watching! Especially that spinning maneuver using hover jets—if you’ve never actually done it before, how on earth could you…”
“K-Karina? Please calm down first.”
“Do I look like I can calm down right now, Rod?! Look at my White Bunny! Not a single scratch! Not one! Do you have any idea how insulting that is?!”
Ian quietly walked up behind me and muttered,
“Ugly.”
“Sorry?”
“Fucking ugly.”
Wait, ugly? Oh, he meant pathetic. Ian stared at Karina with a bored expression and muttered again.
“And I don’t get it. Isn’t it good when your squadmate is strong? You really don’t know that?”
Karina froze at his words. Ian kept staring at her with those vivid blue eyes until she finally mulled it over and gave a small nod.
“That’s… not entirely wrong.”
“Agreed…”
“It may be the opinion of a mere lowborn engineer, but it’s not incorrect. The outstanding performance of that machine must be thanks to the engineer’s exceptional skill. Though he is still just a lowborn engineer.”
Oh. Ian’s mouth snapped shut. Ran quickly covered Ian’s mouth before he could react.
“You son of a…”
“What was that?”
“I-I said we’re wasting time, so shouldn’t we get back to the meeting?! Haha, ha!”
Even though Ran had covered his mouth, we were close enough to hear everything. The part about smashing the head of anyone who dared talk down to an engineer came through loud and clear. It was so Ian to be more pissed about the engineer diss than the lowborn comment.
Karina took a slow, deep breath, then turned to Revan instead of me.
“Just as you said. You must have had quite the match against Aron Dyke, the third-ranked first-year.”
She was going to keep ignoring me until the end, huh.
Revan’s face twitched like he wanted to frown, but he smiled and nodded instead.
“His skill is incredible.”
“Everyone’s sweating quite a bit, so let’s wash up first and regroup in the small briefing room. Assembly in one hour.”
Karina caught her breath again, then headed back down the stairs. Allang glanced at me before following her. Rod, who had been walking behind, suddenly stopped and looked back.
“I saw what you can do. I don’t usually believe rumors, but you’re different.”
“R-rumors?”
“There’s talk that you’ve just been losing because of terrible matchmaking luck.”
No, I’m pretty sure I lost because I just sucked.
“W-who said that?”
“You don’t check the academy community much? Someone using the nickname Ailee has been posting like crazy lately.”
My smartwatch vibrated briefly. When I looked down at it, the vibration stopped immediately.
“See you in an hour. Sorry for cutting you off earlier.”
I didn’t think he’d cut me off badly enough to warrant an apology. Rod patted my shoulder a couple times before heading down the stairs.
The moment Rod disappeared from view, I lifted my wrist.
“Ailee.”
“H-honestly, I don’t think it’s my fault! You told me to keep checking the academy site and community, didn’t you?”
“I told you to check it. I never told you to start posting on it.”
“B-but it looked so fun while I was reading! People should do what they want in life!”
But you’re not a person, Ailee. The words died in my throat. I didn’t want to sound too harsh.
Ailee must have sensed an opening because her speaker let out a triumphant whine.
“And the post I wrote even hit the trending list!”
“What? Who the hell would upvote something like that…”
Tap. Ian placed a hand on my shoulder and nodded.
“Upvoted it.”
So it was you.
“Chaos upvote.”
This son of a bitch.
The small briefing room was dead silent.
Revan kept fidgeting, glancing around nervously. Allang wore a clearly displeased expression, while Rod kept sneaking glances at Karina. Her teal hair, still slightly damp from the shower, gleamed so brightly it hurt my eyes again.
“Alright.”
Out of all the “alrights” I’d heard in my life, this one sounded the worst.
Karina seemed to know it too. She lowered her head for a moment, let out a long breath, and steadied herself.
“Your decisiveness was impressive. I never expected you to switch Titans right before the duel. You knew I would be using a high-mobility type and deliberately chose the heavy armor type that counters it.”
“Yes.”
Karina lightly touched her lips with her fingertips, as if trying to hide the way her mouth had twisted.
“I’ll admit your judgment was excellent. It must be nice to be proficient with so many different Titans.”
“Yes.”
Wow, she’s really trying to play it cool.
“Okay! So, um…” Revan clapped his hands in the air. “Let’s talk about what we’re going to do now! We’re scrapping the idea of Deep staying on permanent watch duty by himself, right?”
“Yes. Let’s do that.”
Tap. Karina’s fingertips hit the table. Only then did Allang and Rod lift their heads.
“Just because we lost doesn’t mean the squad leader changes. I’d appreciate it if you all remembered that.”
Wow, she really is trying to act cool. Actually, the “cool” part can probably be dropped.
“Let’s begin the meeting. I don’t think we need explanations about my Titan or Deep’s. So let’s hear about the other cadets’ machines instead.”
“Since mine seems the most important, I’ll go first.” Allang extended one arm forward. His smartwatch projected a hologram.
“This is the support-type Titan, Arbiter. It specializes in detection and sensor jamming.”
When Allang lowered his hand, the rest of the squad nodded quietly. I was about to nod too when Rod lightly raised his hand.
“Rod. This is the bombardment-type Titan, Heavy Machine. As you can see…”
“You replaced both arms with main battery weapons,” Karina finished.
Rod nodded. It was the ultra-high-firepower bombardment Titan with the open-cannon configuration that the Barony of Rose mainly used. There were two main reasons noble houses used that form. Either their ancestor had earned a ridiculous kill count with that exact type of Titan and received a barony for it, or they were trying to rack up enough kills to somehow climb to viscount.
“Baron Rose also used the same configuration to earn his title. Did you inherit it?”
“I had mine built new.”
“Impressive.”
If it was the former, he’d have been likable enough. Finally, Revan raised his wrist. The moment the hologram appeared, he pressed his lips together tightly.
Yellow-glowing dual-eye optical sensors. A French tricolor paint scheme over a white base. The detailed design was quite different, but this was clearly—
“This is Alex. It’s a heavy armor type. While it’s built for close combat, it’s also equipped with a designated marksman rifle, so it can handle long-range engagements too.”
Well… yeah. I guess there could be a Titan with that kind of design.
The hologram turned off with a soft beep. When I turned my head, my eyes met Revan’s. He gave me a small, knowing smirk.
Having nothing left to say, I looked back at Karina. At the same time, she was looking at me.
“Deep, I’d like you to use the heavy armor type this time.”
“Yes.”
She looked slightly surprised.
“Really?”
“Y-you’re the squad leader, aren’t you?”
Karina stared at me for a moment, then nodded with clear satisfaction.
“Hm, hmm, ahem. That’s right. I am the squad leader. Even though Deep beat me in the duel, it was only because he used the type advantage, right? Since he knows that himself, he’ll naturally respect me as the leader.”
I turned my head slightly and met Rod’s eyes. He shook his head firmly, clearly telling me not to argue. Thanks to that, I kept my mouth shut.
“Ahem. Then shall we discuss the detailed operation? I actually had a plan prepared in advance. That’s why I asked you to use heavy armor.”
Just look at that smug face.
What an ugly thing to say.