Hunting Preparations - Part 1
The night was utterly still, without even a sliver of moonlight. Only the occasional cry of nocturnal beasts broke the silence. I found myself alone in the depths of a dark forest. Well, not entirely alone—the Limpid Fairies were with me.
“Haaam.”
I tore my eyes away from the scenery I’d been watching for hours, yawned, and scratched my itchy scalp. The Limpid Fairy lay prone on a makeshift platform built among the thick branches of a massive tree, its scope fixed on the plains beyond the forest. It was a relief that when an Aindium took a prone position, the cockpit adjusted to maintain the pilot’s balance, so I didn’t have to lie completely flat. Of course, if the power ever cut out, it could flip over like the Black Fairy had during that last crash, so I still had to be careful.
At first, the disconnect between my vision and body had caused mild nausea, but I’d grown used to it over time. The real problem was that staying tilted forward for hours instead of minutes was starting to send all sorts of strange signals through my body. A faint dizziness had set in, and the hand resting lightly on the lever had begun to tremble.
Even so, I couldn’t raise the Limpid Fairy upright. The hastily constructed platform was so precarious that the slightest shift in center of gravity would send it plummeting to the ground. And taking off now would waste all the time I’d spent waiting, so I couldn’t bring myself to press the flight button either.
“When is this thing even going to start?”
No matter how much I complained, the comms remained silent. This was all Rendel’s fault. I unconsciously pouted and mentally blamed the protagonist, but since I was the one who had caused this situation, I had no right to point fingers.
To explain why I was lurking alone in a remote forest in the dead of night, I’d have to go back two weeks.
The CT Club freshman selection results came out the next day. An impressive number of first-years passed the club interview: four pilots, two operators, and two mechanics. Among the pilots, the fourth member besides me, Yui, and Mikhail turned out to be neither Grik, who had the best grades, nor Shaton in second place, but Savian—a female student who ranked third.
She had lasted until the very end alongside Mikhail during the spar against Rendel, and according to Carson, she had excellent command comprehension. Since I didn’t know her personally, I had nothing else to say about her. From what I could recall, these three pilots—excluding Lewina—had joined as freshmen in the original story too. Of course, I’d been dragged into this world before they could really shine, so I only remembered them as passing extras.
Come to think of it, there were an awful lot of girls among the first-year CT Club members. Among the pilots, Mikhail was the only boy besides me. And when counting all specialties, the only male cadet was a mechanic named Marius who had been selected alongside Neria. I resolved to help Mikhail and Marius out, since I had unintentionally stepped into a mostly female social circle. Our first-year girls were nice, but there was a chance the blunt Mikhail might never fully fit in. I’d just have to lend a hand. What else could I do?
“You’ve seen the clubroom before, right? That’s the break room, and we usually keep the TV on the news channel.”
As I guided the new members around, I suddenly realized several months had already passed since I first arrived here. My fingerprints and the wear of my hands were already on the clubroom’s front door, the sofa armrests, and even the game controller neatly placed in front of the TV.
“Hey, the freshmen are here.”
Kirie, who had been resting in the corner of the sofa, jumped up with a bright smile and approached us. She wrapped her arms around mine and Neria’s necks, forcing us into a group hug, then whispered low enough that the others couldn’t hear.
“You two will handle managing the kids, right?”
“No. You should fulfill the role you were assigned, Senior.”
When I answered with a sweet smile, Kirie’s eyebrows twitched violently even as her smile stayed frozen in place. Because the second-years were away on joint pilot-operator training this week, everyone except Kirie had left the clubroom. Naturally, Kirie had been put in charge of training the freshmen, but anyone could see this was clearly a personnel assignment error.
I quickly spoke up before she could explode. “Senior, just tell them what the CT Club does. That’s something I need to learn too.”
“Then you’ll have to show them the rest based on what you know?”
“Didn’t you just see me do that?”
“Yeah. I’ll trust you to handle it well, Luna.”
Kirie gave my shoulder a light pat, released the group hug, and stood in front of the first-years.
“Ahem. I’m Kirie, a second-year from the mechanics division. The mechanics freshmen already know me, right?”
Neria and Marius, the first-year mechanics, nodded vigorously. Satisfied, Kirie continued.
“The other second-years are currently out for training. Once you reach third year, you’ll be so busy you’ll barely have time to breathe, so most people leave the club. But seniors still drop by occasionally. If a third-year senior visits, greet them properly first.”
“Yes.”
“Then, does anyone know what our club actually does?”
At Kirie’s question, Savian raised her hand. As the highest-ranked pilot among the first-years, she seemed to know quite a bit.
“You. What was your name again?”
“I’m Savian.”
“Good. Go ahead and explain.”
It looked like Kirie was planning to dump even her own explanation onto a junior. I shot her a slight glare, but she pretended not to notice and listened attentively to Savian.
“The CT Club, officially known as the Combat Technology Club, is famous as the club that the best pilots at Alitus Academy strive to join. The pilots research combat techniques as the name suggests, seeking the optimal methods of battle, while operators and mechanics can also hone their skills. It’s a wonderful club.”
“Hmm.”
Kirie nodded in satisfaction and opened her mouth to speak, but Savian wasn’t finished.
“Notable alumni include General Roman, current commander of the Second Aindium Corps, and the Loxide Bordergrave of the North. The club has also developed numerous tactics and technologies, built weapon and communication systems used in actual combat, and is a major contributor to enhancing the academy’s external reputation.”
At the mention of the Loxide Bordergrave, Mikhail flinched visibly. Since he was from the Loxide family himself, they were probably relatives. Having finished her lengthy explanation, Savian looked ready to continue, but Kirie raised both hands to stop her.
“Yes, yes! Savian, was it? Thank you for the excellent explanation.”
Savian, silenced by Kirie, wore a slightly dissatisfied expression. But the gap between Savian’s description and the CT Club I knew was enormous. Wasn’t this the club where people just munched on snacks, played games, and stayed up past curfew in the dorms? They seemed to be restraining themselves while Neria and I were around, but having read the original story, I knew everything. I had never once seen this club conduct proper tactical research. Since Rendel fought like a madman and the rest provided adequate support, there had never been any need for actual strategy.
Kirie, apparently unable to lie, scratched her head and revealed the club’s current reality.
“Well, what Savian described is more like the past. It’s a story from our distant seniors’ time. These days, there are dedicated Aindium research institutions, so it’s hard for us to create our own unique tactics.”
Savian’s mouth fell open in shock at Kirie’s words. It seemed this friend had worked incredibly hard to get in after hearing about the club’s external prestige. Oh well. The place you’ve come to is a den of talent-hoarders resting on past glory.
“Still, we do quite a bit of weapons research. And you could say this is a club for coordinating and training pilots who have received their personal machines.”
A personal machine was literally an Aindium built for one individual. Pilots using mass-produced units simply learned and executed unit-specific tactics like regular soldiers of the past. But pilots with personal machines were closer to knights. Beings who could shake an entire battlefield with just a single unit. On top of that, since each pilot and machine had completely different specialties and characteristics, coordination with other Aindiums often fell apart. The CT Club existed to compensate for that weakness and to nurture leaders who could command other Aindiums or aces who dominated the battlefield. Rendel, the academy’s greatest ace, and Carson, who steadily grew and commanded units in every training exercise, could be considered model examples.
“But if you want to research new tactics, we’ll support you enthusiastically. We are a club that studies combat technology, and tactics and formations are extremely important on the battlefield.”
Having finished her explanation, Kirie smiled and jerked her chin toward me.
“Luna will tell you the rest of what you need to know about club life.”
“Yes. I’ll take care of it.”
I stood where Kirie had been and looked over my fellow first-years. Yui, who shared my special attribute. Mikhail from the Bordergrave family, who specialized in close combat. Savian, who loved explaining things. These were the pilot classmates I would be working with. Christine, who used polite speech with everyone in our class, and Jena, whom I had greeted alongside Ran. My roommate Neria and the large, honest-faced Marius. These friends would be our operators and mechanics. I smiled at the classmates I would spend the next year and more with.
A few days later, the second-years returned from training. When I went to the clubroom after class, Ran and Muri had already arrived.
“Thank you for your hard work. Did the training go well?”
“Yeah. Did you hold up okay, Luna?”
“Where are the other seniors?”
“The boys went to wash up after exercising. Kirie’s doing mechanics practice.”
Ran, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, still possessed her goddess-like beauty. However, her skin looked a little rough, probably from the long outdoor training…
“Senior Ran. Try using this.”
“Oh my. What is all this?”
Ran looked slightly surprised as she accepted the skincare set I handed her. As befitting a princess of a nation, Lewina had been well-versed in every kind of beauty product. For a while after arriving here I hadn’t paid any attention to such things, but Line’s increasingly suspicious glances had forced me to study Lewina’s knowledge. Thanks to that, I had accumulated quite a bit of information about women’s skincare that I previously knew nothing about. Lewina had disliked caking on cosmetics, so I only used basic skincare items. Anything more felt like an extravagance. Who had time to put on makeup in the middle of a battlefield?
But Ran, an operator, was an exception. Senior Ran had to remain beautiful forever.
“Thank you, Luna. I was just running out of moisturizer.”
Ran accepted the necessary items without hesitation. It was nice to see her happily pondering over the many foreign products that were hard to get in Alitus. I politely offered a pouch of beauty products to Muri as well, but as expected, she shook her head and quickly fled elsewhere.
“Hello.”
As my classmates arrived one by one, they greeted the seniors. With so many first-years joining, the once-spacious clubroom now felt rather cramped.
“Oh, the freshmen are here.”
Rendel and Carson returned from their showers wearing only thin t-shirts. Ran crossed her arms and glared at them.
“There are kids here. Put on some proper clothes.”
“What’s the big deal about this?” Carson grumbled, but Rendel simply nodded. I thought I saw him glance in my direction. Since Rendel paid unusual attention to my opinion, he probably didn’t want to make a bad impression. Personally, I didn’t think sloppy clothing had anything to do with Aindium piloting skill.
“Kirie probably already gave you the club explanation. Shall we jump straight into club activities?”
At Rendel’s suggestion, the first-years wore expressions with question marks floating above their heads. Rendel grinned and pointed at one wall of the clubroom.
“A new virtual training device was installed in the next room. It can now update personal machine data and summon them in the virtual training field. Our CT Club received priority permission to use it.”
“Oh.”
Virtual training with personal machines was now possible. I didn’t know how accurately they had been implemented, but being able to perform virtual training—which boasted realism nearly identical to actual combat—using personal machines was a huge advantage. Until now, the virtual training room had been a space where personal machine owners suffered from reverse discrimination. Pilots’ skills would improve rapidly through realistic practice.
As the club pilots crowded into the next room, Rendel stopped me.
“Luna. I’m sorry, but it looks like we won’t be able to input the Limpid’s data.”
“It’s a security matter, after all.”
It was a little disappointing, but it couldn’t be helped. My personal machine was currently registered as the Black Fairy. If the specs in the virtual trainer differed from the real ones, it would look suspicious.
“Instead, I received a chip containing the Black Fairy’s data. I’ll give it to you later.”
As he spoke, Rendel smiled gently. Looking into his green eyes, I smiled back without understanding why. I later learned that implementing Nimust-class capabilities would have taken a long time, but Rendel had personally asked a high-ranking official to speed it up considerably. Since there weren’t many opportunities to fight Nimust-class units, he apparently wanted to gain real combat experience by fighting my Black Fairy this time. Our protagonist really did devote his life to Aindium combat.