How Did You Know?
How did she know? Who told her, when, and where? And why? In an instant, dozens—no, hundreds—of possible scenarios flooded my mind. With the kind of high-level intelligence network only nobles possessed, was Yvette actually from Karmanu? Or perhaps an intelligence operative concealing her identity?
As if she could read the chaotic deductions spinning through my head, Senior Yvette nodded with a bright smile.
“Confused, are we?”
“Uh… yes.”
“Then here’s a question. Why do you suppose I know the princess’s identity?”
“I’m in the middle of figuring that out right now!”
The moment I shouted the answer without thinking, a truly terrifying possibility struck me. What if—what if Senior Yvette belonged to the enemy faction? What if she knew I was a descendant of the Damar Empire’s imperial family and that I piloted the dark-attribute masterpiece Limpid Fairy? In that case, I was in extreme danger.
No matter how I looked at it, the enemy’s repeated attempts to infiltrate the academy almost certainly targeted either the Limpid Fairy or the fairies themselves. While they had gone after cadets directly before, the Allob Island raid showed that their strongest leader-class units had struck Fairy's Hill.
Come to think of it, maybe the reason Yui had been attacked was because of the fairy. She’d been carrying the one I’d given her. If the enemy had realized that, they might have tried to seize it.
The pieces clicked together with chilling clarity. Senior Yvette’s smile, which had seemed friendly moments ago, now felt downright sinister.
I had no self-defense weapon on me. If I shouted for Rendel waiting outside…? No. I’d be taken out before he could even react.
I decided to treat Yvette as a potential enemy. Fortunately, we were in the CT Club’s break room—the exact place where I kept my secret weapon.
With a rattle, I opened the cabinet behind me. Yvette stared at me oddly as I reached inside and pulled out my ultimate deterrent.
Bizarre snack. Mint chocolate ginger cookies.
Effect: Instant psychological suppression.
“Shik. Shik.”
“……”
The look on Senior Yvette’s face as I waved the peeled cookies threateningly while making sound effects was a masterpiece. The sheer, unfiltered expression of someone watching a pathetic junior—or perhaps a misbehaving little sister—was so obvious that I immediately realized she wasn’t an enemy agent.
I quietly lowered the cookies and hung my head.
“…What exactly was that?”
“…Nothing. Forget it.”
The reactions flooding up the bulletin board stabbed at my heart. I’m not a weird person. Really.
“Did I scare you too much? I’m sorry.”
“No, no. I jumped to conclusions myself…”
After a brief, wordless moment of mutual forgiveness for our respective mistakes, Senior Yvette spoke again.
“The way the Karmanu side treated you was just… strange. I’m fairly close with them, but whenever I asked about your connection to Karmanu, they would all clam up.”
“Ah.”
When my identity had been revealed, everyone except Rendel—who had been present—must have been ordered to keep silent about it. Still, there was no way Yvette wouldn’t have noticed something off.
“Besides, my mother says she knows you.”
“Pardon? Countess Layrans?”
“Yes.”
This was news to me. I had only pretended to be a noble from Alitus; I had never met the countess. Wait. Could it be through the Adelst family whose name I had borrowed? But they weren’t in any position to go spreading my secrets.
“Actually, we’re quite close too. You and I.”
Close? I couldn’t think of any connection at all. My question was answered by Senior Yvette’s next action.
Without warning, she spread her arms and pulled me into a hug, whispering softly.
The First Imperial Princess of the Damar Empire, seeking to escape the civil war over the throne, led a small group of followers and attempted to flee through the Republic. The Republic, sensing weakness in the war-torn empire, raised an army to seize the orbital elevator known as the Sky Staircase.
Caught off guard by the sudden outbreak of war, the princess’s party hid in a quiet rural village before attempting to slip into the Republic. It was during this time that they encountered Black Wolf. The story of these events became the first work in this series, Aindium.
Queen Line and Ruwina were the First Princess’s granddaughters. At the time, there had been another imperial princess in the empire—an older half-sister with a different mother. Their relationship, it was said, had not been particularly bad. The source of this information was none other than Iveticia Layrans, the granddaughter of the Second Princess.
The Second Princess’s daughter, Countess Katrine of the empire, had married Count Layrans of Alitus and settled here. Their daughter was the “big sister” currently hugging me.
Since their grandmothers were sisters, that would make us sixth cousins. Whether or not one actually counted such distant relations was another matter.
After ending the breath-stealing hug, Senior Yvette’s eyes sparkled as she reached out to stroke my hair. She didn’t seem inclined to stop, petting me like some puppy or kitten rather than a cousin.
“Did you know Queen Line?”
“We knew of each other’s existence. The first time we actually met was during the last peacekeeping force dispatch. Mother said she had seen both you and Line before, though.”
At Yvette’s words, a hazy memory surfaced—Ruwina’s memory—of traveling to Alitus as a child and meeting many adults. So the countess had been one of them. Since a fifth-degree uncle and his niece were considered fairly close kin, she must have met Line and Ruwina then.
Come to think of it, aside from Rendel and me, Senior Yvette was the only one who had frequently visited Karmanu territory. Being a relatively close relative of Line’s, she probably felt less pressure than the other cadets and acted accordingly.
I was lost in thought, but Yvette’s hand showed no sign of stopping. I finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“Um, my hair…”
“Hm? Harder?”
No, if you stroke it any harder I might go bald.
“No… You can stop now.”
“Really?”
With a clearly disappointed tone, Senior Yvette finally withdrew her hand. I smoothed down my friction-warmed hair and opened my mouth to wrap up the conversation.
“Then, Senior—”
“Big sister.”
“Pardon?”
“You call Line ‘big sister,’ don’t you? From now on, call me that too.”
Thanks to Ruwina’s memories, the word came naturally when referring to Line, but I wasn’t prepared to call anyone else “big sister.”
“Um, that’s… this is a school, so…”
In the end, the only card I could play was the eyes of others. Senior Yvette let out a small sigh and shrugged.
“Then at least call me that when we’re alone.”
“I’ll consider it, Senior Yvette.”
My reply, which clearly implied I had no intention of ever doing so, made the corners of her eyes droop. Seeing that expression made my heart weaken. I really shouldn’t…
“Uh… Big Sister.”
“!!”
It took about five minutes before I managed to escape from Senior Yvette’s embrace. She had widened her eyes at my tiny murmur, refusing to let me go.
On the way back, Rendel was waiting. As we prepared to leave together, Senior Yvette waved with a playful smile. I awkwardly waved back to see her off, then let out a long sigh and turned away.
“What happened with the senior?”
“Family matters.”
“Family?”
Oh, right. Rendel already knew I was the princess of Karmanu. Since Yvette was an Alitus noble, my answer had essentially revealed that there was some connection. But Rendel could keep a secret, so it should be fine.
Still, why did the countess suddenly want to see me? I was also curious how she had even known I was here. It seemed there was no avoiding the meeting.
Perhaps this event had been planned in the original story as well. I packed my training camp luggage with a mixture of anticipation and worry.
On the day of the training camp, I boarded the ship with a touch of dissatisfaction.
“Of all times for the schedules to overlap.”
Neria, who knew the circumstances, offered comfort.
“It can’t be helped. Taking the Limpid Fairy off Allob Island at all was already a special favor.”
Last time, we had taken the Limpid Fairy to Karmanu with Grand Duke Windsor’s tacit approval, but that wasn’t possible now. Research on the Limpid Fairy was still ongoing and conducted roughly once a month. They had permitted the trip because nothing particularly urgent was happening, but recently they seemed to have found some clue, and the research period had been extended.
“They said the flight module was difficult to replicate with other attributes, but it looks like they’ve made progress on the hovering mode’s duration and optical camouflage.”
Neria was participating in the research thanks to her CT Club privileges. I occasionally caught snippets of reports about the Limpid Fairy, but there were still a few things I was curious about.
“Don’t other mechs use optical camouflage right now?”
“They do, but the Limpid Fairy’s technology is far stronger and more efficient. Normal optical camouflage is hard to maintain while using weapons.”
In contrast, the Limpid Fairy could maintain optical camouflage, use its armaments, and even fly all at the same time. As expected of Meister Carol’s masterpiece.
“The Black Fairy is an excellent mech too.”
“I know.”
In truth, if high-altitude flight and optical camouflage weren’t necessary, the Black Fairy was every bit as outstanding as the Limpid Fairy. Since their weapon systems were identical, the only real difference was the pile bunker buster that used altitude for extra impact. Oh, right. The rail cannon would be difficult to fire without securing altitude. Firing it from the ground would cause more damage to my surroundings than to the enemy.
“We upgraded the Black Fairy’s engine and flight module recently, so it should be able to fly much higher than before.”
“That’s right, we changed the engine.”
Not long ago, Senior Kirie had installed prototype engines using Ellydium on several CT Club mechs. Rendel had refused, saying he would only install it once stability was guaranteed. Senior Muri, who cherished her machine like a child, had also declined for now. Senior Carson’s Hussar—which was quick to adopt new technology—and my Black Fairy, which had provided the base technology, were chosen as test platforms.
Senior Carson had been amazed by the engine’s output and taken the Hussar out early last Saturday morning. Around lunchtime, a rescue request came from the other side of the island. Apparently the engine output had spiked abnormally before suddenly cutting out. I had flown for quite a while in the Limpid Fairy just to tow it back.
“Did they fix the engine issue?”
“Yes. It won’t suddenly stop like last time. We added a conversion gear so you can switch to a normal engine mode if it becomes unstable.”
Neria explained the new features added to the Black Fairy. As mentioned, there was a mode that sacrificed some performance for greater stability. There was also a function that physically sealed the cockpit to prevent flooding, along with an improved oxygen generator to match.
“What about flight altitude?”
“About three hundred.”
“That’s three times higher.”
“With your current mana capacity, Luna, that much should be perfectly manageable.”
I had been working hard in my own way to reduce my dependence on the Limpid Fairy. My piloting skills had reached the top of the year even without the fairy’s assistance, and my mana reserves had grown so much that they were unrecognizable from when I had first enrolled. I had also steadily learned dark magic from the magic club I attended without fail. I probably wouldn’t need to use the spells themselves, but since dark mana was fed directly into the flight module, my proficiency had increased enough to handle higher-output modules.
The Limpid Fairy’s modules were absurdly efficient, producing maximum performance with minimal mana. The modules built from the blueprints, however, delivered exactly as much power as the mana poured into them. Overall, I had become roughly three times stronger than before.
“Neria! The maintenance team is gathering!”
“I-I’m coming…. See you later, Luna.”
“Yeah. Have a good time.”
Neria, who had been chattering nonstop until a moment ago, hunched her shoulders, gave a small wave, and trudged off toward the maintenance team’s meeting point. Even her deflated posture was adorable. I should check the bulletin board later to see if anyone had posted a gif of her.