I Hired a Part-Timer
"Sir, are you… in need of a job?"
Marcus, who had been staring blankly at the panel, flinched so hard his shoulders jumped.
A part-time job. An unusual choice for a man his age.
But this girl was a monster who commanded seven Titans. Even something as humble as part-time work might operate on an entirely different scale with her.
"It's not dangerous work, is it?"
That was the real question — the danger. If it turned out to be contract killing, or combat fodder of some kind, he couldn't exactly leap at the offer.
Sensing his hesitation, Rosetta pressed on with her explanation.
"Come in for an interview."
"An… interview?"
"Follow me this way…."
"…?"
"Oh, it's not dangerous, I promise."
The girl, who had been talking mostly to herself, stood up without even waiting for his answer.
What kind of job is this?
Marcus, half in a daze, found himself trailing after her small back.
Their destination was the hangar.
The Titans, left untouched for a week, still stood arrayed in their places, and even Marcus, craning his neck up at them, let out a low whistle.
No matter how many times I see them, they're staggering.
Each one a monster in its own right — the Titan collection made his knees weak every time he laid eyes on it.
Just as he was admiring the motley assortment of machines, Rosetta pointed at one of them.
"Hop in and try it."
It was the largest of the bunch, roughly one and a half times the size of the others. The alloy plating she'd sold last time, along with her moving cargo, had all traveled inside that transport container.
Is there more stock left?
Marcus drew closer, tilting his head. The container was empty. Nothing left to sell at all.
There's nothing in here?
Right at that moment, as he stood there baffled, her voice floated over to him.
"No, I said… get in and drive it?"
"Pardon?"
"A carrier pilot… part-time job test…."
A question mark bloomed over Marcus's head.
Carrier pilot?
A Carrier Knight. Literally, someone who hauls cargo on your behalf. Unlike a delivery pilot, they had no fixed destination — a difference in professional scope.
Granted, it ranked a rung below a proper Titan Knight, but as a quasi-knight profession it commanded the same social standing as delivery work. A respectable trade.
"You mean… me?"
Which meant he'd need to know how to operate a Titan, too. That was territory a back-alley broker who couldn't even channel mana had no business touching.
"I don't even have a Titan operator's license, you know."
"You don't exactly follow the law anyway, dooo you…."
What is she even saying.
Marcus's lips flapped in disbelief before he finally let out a hollow sigh. He'd known she was an odd little thing, but did she have no common sense at all?
"Well… I'll give it a try, at least."
Reasoning that words would get him nowhere, he reluctantly climbed the Titan's hatch, planning to humor her if it was a joke and be done with it.
A first-generation Titan, huh.
Clunk — the cockpit sealed shut with a heavy sound. He ran his eyes over the crude control panels and quietly steadied his nerves.
Relatively speaking, that's a relief.
Trying to force a sync with a newer model was a surefire way to burn through your mana and pass out frothing at the mouth. But older models didn't operate at all without mana, which meant no accidents could happen.
It won't move anyway.
Could he move this thing even a single centimeter? With his previously measured mana output, not a chance. Whatever he did, he was certain the Titan wouldn't budge an inch.
…?
Kiiing! Clank!
The screech of metal rang out.
Through the screen ahead, he could see the Titan holding one massive clamp arm high in the air.
It moved?
He sat there dumbstruck. A deep blue glow of mana was even shimmering through the cockpit.
Wooooom- Woong- The resonant hum in his ears was proof that mana was flowing smoothly into the Titan.
What the….
Half in disbelief, he worked the lever again, and the clamp arm lowered. Wooooom- Once more, the vibration of mana swept a wash of blue light through the cockpit.
It's actually moving!
It defied comprehension. He had moved a Titan with his own mana? Yet he didn't feel drained in the slightest.
It doesn't even feel strenuous.
He fiddled with more panels — beyond the arms, motions like bowing the head and turning the waist. He was testing one thing after another when a small accident occurred.
He fumbled and hit the wrong button, and the Titan began to lumber forward on its ponderous feet.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Whoaaah!"
He shrieked in panic. The hangar wasn't nearly big enough for a Titan to go for a stroll. The concrete wall hurtled into view on the screen.
The shop's going to collapse—!
He barely reacted at the last instant before impact. Working the panels and levers, the metallic giant twisted into a turn and ground to a halt just shy of the wall.
Screeeeech! Dust scattered as the Titan stopped a mere meter from the wall.
Whew… I survived.
With trembling hands, he looked back down at the controls. But the questions crowding his mind remained unresolved.
Why is this thing moving, though?
Meanwhile, Rosetta was watching the wake carved into the floor as the massive Titan skidded to a stop — and she was genuinely impressed.
"Ooooh…."
A smooth, turning emergency stop right before slamming into the wall. For a total beginner, that was pretty masterful handling. She had spent her whole life around Titans, after all — maybe her theory was as sharp as ever.
"Sir… you're kind of a genius at this…."
A cargo Titan was all bulk and almost no combat power, so bundling it in with a combat unit's control scheme was a hassle. If it got caught in an attack and blown up, every resource they'd stockpiled would evaporate. Better to keep a dedicated porter on hand.
"Carrier Knight… accepted."
After all, as long as she was nearby, she could supply the Titan's mana without limit. A porter waiting somewhere safe during a fight needed nothing more than a basic sense of control.
"You're taking the job, right?"
"…."
Of course he had to. Backing out after someone had gone through the trouble of a job test would be an insult to interviewers everywhere. If such a person existed, they deserved a thorough beating in the name of moral education.
A few days later.
KOOOOM, KOOOM!
Massive footfalls were thudding against the earth. Eight Titans marching in a line was a spectacle that seized the eye all on its own. Even with the Titan road kept apart from the city proper, a fair number of onlookers had gathered to watch from a distance.
I really did end up piloting a Titan.
Inside the cockpit of the large container rig, Marcus swallowed dryly amid the juddering vibrations. Somewhere along the way, he had come to a realization — one that overturned what he'd misunderstood all this time.
There were never any subordinates to begin with.
Six Titans visible on the rear screen. He'd confirmed it before departure — every one of those cockpits was completely empty.
From the very start, there was only one person.
The only piloted machines were the tailed Titan and his own squat container rig. Strictly speaking, he wasn't even a pilot. All eight Titans were running on the boss's mana as their power source.
Incidentally, ever since signing the part-time contract, he had taken to calling the little brat "Boss."
Is this even possible?
Decades of scrabbling as a broker had tangled him with every kind of Titan Knight, but he'd never heard of a case like hers. A very long time ago, there had been showoffs who claimed to pilot two Titans at once, but they'd vanished without a trace once second-generation Titans appeared.
An Abyss Knight, truly, is beyond understanding.
A girl who wielded eight Titans like extensions of her own body. After days of watching her flout common sense at every turn, his astonishment had curdled into plain numbness.
Could it be I've tangled myself with a monster I was never meant to touch?
"We're here."
Abruptly, a voice laced with metallic static poured from the speaker. Marcus raised his head, and a vast, open vista filled his view.
A tower of Babel punching up through the distant clouds. A colossal elevator climbing along the structure that bound earth to sky. Whiiiiiir- and from the hole in the heavens that swallowed it all whole, a fierce wind of mana came howling down.
"The entrance to the Abyss."
A colossal hell floating in the sky — and at the same time, an inexhaustible treasury of resources. This was the Abyss, the pillar that held up the entire Kingdom.
Rosetta gazed up at the sky and marveled.
The real thing really is more magnificent than the game.
The treasure vault that had raised the Kingdom to rival the Holy Theocracy in a mere five years. Naturally, it didn't let just anyone stroll in. If the sky elevator linking the ground to a kilometer overhead were ever hit by a terrorist attack, restoration alone would take months — and an expeditionary knight order stranded in the sky would be a far graver catastrophe.
And of course, there's a security detail.
Which was why the screening at the entrance was stricter than any airport. Identity, purpose of entry, the cargo loaded aboard each Titan — everything had to be verified before elevator boarding was permitted.
They'll search us within an inch of our lives, won't they?
On Easy or Normal difficulty, a standard academy field trip was the usual fast-pass route. But a dropout paired with a back-alley broker would never sail through untouched.
"Sir… you remember, right?"
So she had prepared in advance — something resembling the method she'd used on her back-alley gladiator character on Hard difficulty.
"If you slip up…."
"Of course. I remember."
Thus fully prepared, the two of them began slowly moving toward the entrance of the Abyss.
The Abyss entrance checkpoint.
The guard knight on duty yawned out a long, dragging yawn.
Boring as hell.
Ordinarily, this was the idlest posting imaginable. There weren't that many Titans around to begin with — at most, one or two would trundle past now and then. Unless it was academy cadets on a field trip, or a major guild, or an official royal expedition, he could just kill the hours until his shift ended.
Drowsiness was heavy on his eyelids in the cool breath of mana — and at that very moment—
"Wha—?!"
KOOOM! KUKOOM!
He snapped awake at the heavy tremor shaking the ground.
What the—?!
A pack of Titans advancing with thunderous strides. At a glance, a good eight machines were approaching in flawless formation.
Who are they with?
Quasi-knights like delivery or repair pilots didn't roam around in herds of eight. If it were a royal expedition or a major guild, word would have been sent ahead to the checkpoint without fail.
But eight Titans of a model even he couldn't identify? There was absolutely no way he could wave them through.
"HALT RIGHT THERE!"
KOOOM—! Led by the largest Titan at the head of the column, every machine ground to a stop in place.
"OPEN THE COCKPITS FOR INSPECTION!"
Clunk—!
The lead Titan's hatch swung open at once. The moment he laid eyes on the man seated in the cockpit, the guard's brow knotted tight.
Well, there's my incident report for the day.
A long scar dragged down the man's face like something out of a mafia film. The thuggish look of him — a rough leather coat draped over a face that had clearly taken a few dozen knife wounds in some back alley somewhere.
That villainous mug. This is a hundred percent one of those.