Chapter 110 – Oh, Honestly!!

A dedicated simulator room inside the Syn-Fibra offices.

Letaria and Milea stood together in the room.

"I did accept today's job as a formal request from Syn-Fibra, but..."

Letaria tilted her head, looking puzzled, and Milea nodded as she worked the terminal in her hands.

"Yes, this time I put the request through you officially, as company business."

"Would it not have sufficed for me to help as usual, in my personal capacity?"

"It would, but this time the goal is 'precise measurement of the brainwave-assist function in Trace Mode,' so it's more convenient in a few ways to run it as a proper paid assignment. Well, don't worry too much about the technical side of it."

"...? Very well then."

Accepting Milea's explanation well enough, Letaria followed her instructions obediently.

"So, I'd like you to get back into the same simulator as before, but this time I want to check the readings using two different methods. Want to give it a try?"

"Yes, leave it to me!"

Letaria climbed into the simulator pod with confident enthusiasm, and the hatch closed quietly behind her.

"First, I want you to try moving the Makina using nothing but your thoughts, while it's in a completely 'off' state -- no Trace Mode, no manual controls, nothing active at all."

At Milea's instructions echoing from the console, Letaria's eyes went wide.

"Moving it with thought alone -- whatever does that mean?"

"Hmm... how should I put this. Think of it as 'willing it to happen.' I want to properly confirm that thing that's happened before, mid-battle -- Arden responding to your strong sense of will."

"Understood, I shall give it a try!"

Nodding to Milea's image on the pod's internal console, Letaria immediately began focusing her mind.

...But the Makina on the screen didn't so much as twitch.

Letaria squeezed her eyes shut, her face flushing bright red, and began to groan with effort.

"Nnnnnngh! Please, move!"

Several minutes passed like that, the silence dragging on.

"Hmm... maybe it really is difficult without some kind of physical input after all..."

Just as Milea reached out to cut the test short --

"Ah, it moved!"

Letaria's voice rang out in surprise.

On the screen, the Makina had taken one step, then two, on its own two feet -- only the barest amount of movement, but movement nonetheless. But almost immediately, as if its energy had run dry, it came to a dead stop.

"Ahh, and just when it finally moved, it stopped again so quickly..."

Letaria's shoulders slumped in disappointment. But Milea, who had been tracking the data readings on the external monitor, had her eyes wide open.

Swallowing down a moment of shock, and after a brief pause, Milea switched the simulator over to the next test.

"...Ahem. All right, let's move on to the second test. Same conditions as before, control systems still off. But this time, a large boulder is going to come rolling straight at you from ahead -- try to dodge it."

Milea flipped a switch, and within the simulator's virtual space, a boulder more massive and imposing than anything Letaria had seen since arriving in this world materialized and came rolling toward her at tremendous speed.

"Ahh, ah-ah-ah-ah! E-even knowing it's just a simulator, this is genuinely terrifying!"

Letaria couldn't help but scream, twisting desperately inside the pod.

With no Trace Mode setting active, the machine naturally showed no response to the player's own bodily movements.

And yet.

The Makina in the simulator dodged clear, by the narrowest possible margin.

"Eeeek, eeeeeek!"

Letaria's very real screams carried out through the pod's speakers.

"Just a little more, hang in there."

Milea's voice, sounding somewhere between apologetic and not particularly apologetic at all, went completely unheard by the panicking Letaria.

After that, amid an unrelenting barrage of massive rolling boulders, the Makina in the simulator, though it took a few direct hits along the way, managed to dodge more than half of them cleanly.

◆

All tests finished, Letaria staggered out of the simulator in a thoroughly worn-out state.

"Haah, haah... th-that was exhausting..."

A faint sheen of sweat on her brow, thoroughly worn out, Letaria found Milea had prepared a cold drink and some snacks for her.

"Good work, Letaria."

"Honestly! Even knowing there was no real danger, that was terrible for the heart!"

Taking the cup, Letaria puffed out her cheeks in indignant protest.

"I'm sorry. There, there, calm down, Letaria. Easy now."

Milea soothed her gently, as if calming down an excited animal.

"...I'll make sure the pay reflects it properly, all right?"

"Oh, honestly...!"

At the blunt, transactional offer, Letaria's words caught in her throat and her pout deepened further. Milea smiled and continued.

"But really, this test data turned out to be genuinely valuable in all sorts of ways. It's going to help you going forward, I'm sure -- Arden too."

Hearing that, Letaria's expression softened all at once.

"...Well, if that is the case, then I suppose I shall grant you my special forgiveness. ...Whew, I suppose all that concentration has left me rather hungry. Milea, let us go to the cafeteria together!"

"Sorry, I've got the analysis on the data we just collected to get to, so I can't today."

"Oh, honestly!!"

At Milea's unfeeling reply, Letaria let out the loudest exclamation of her entire day.