Chapter 144 – No, Here Is Fine

"Mmn..."

A few hours after returning to Seldia. On a sofa tucked into one corner of the lab, Letaria thrust both hands up high and stretched widely.

"Did you sleep well?"

Lit by the pale glow of the main monitor, Milea stopped her hands on the keyboard and spoke gently.

"I feel as though my body has become a little lighter..."

Letaria rubbed her eyes and sat up. Right after returning to base, she had handed her beloved machine over to the maintenance crew, changed from her pilot suit into everyday clothes, and, as if drawn by some pull, wandered into this lab and fallen asleep on the spot.

"You've got that nice room all to yourself, you know. Go rest properly in the bed over there."

To Milea's kind concern, she had answered, "No, here is fine," and burrowed straight into the sofa. It was true that Letaria's newly prepared room was spacious, well furnished, and its bed wonderfully comfortable. But no matter how tough she tried to act, to Letaria the lab, with the presence of the trustworthy Milea right nearby, was a far more restful place to entrust herself to.

"How is Arden...?"

Stifling a yawn against her lingering drowsiness, Letaria asked after her beloved machine's condition.

"No serious damage. The outer armor on the right foot has taken major damage, but the inner frame has only a few scratches. You kicked with the resolve to take the enemy's blade head-on, didn't you."

Milea answered without taking her eyes off the screen, having already combed through every corner of the combat data that had been recovered.

"Yes. I had been told it was 'Hardilite,' after all. It is truly as sturdy as mithril -- though I have never seen real mithril."

At that moment, Letaria had thrown the kick trusting Milea's word that the Hardilite was extremely tough -- but she kept that to herself.

At Letaria's carefree words, Milea let out a deep sigh, a mix of relief and exasperation.

"Reckless as ever... But in that situation, that was the best choice, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was."

Letaria nodded honestly and lowered her gaze as if looking back.

"It was a truly strange enemy, unlike any I have fought before. In appearance, it was the very image of the raider's machine that attacked the transport ship the other day... but its insides were something else entirely."

A brief silence passed between the two of them.

"Right... a high bombardment capability to match that heavy armament, yet unbelievable mobility and close-combat ability, and those eerie multiple arm parts..."

Milea scrolled through the enemy machine's behavior data on the screen with her finger.

"It's the very picture of an 'experimental machine.' ...But even if they mass-produced such an absurd machine, there's no way there'd be pilots lying around everywhere who could draw out its full performance--"

Milea stopped abruptly partway through. Reeling in a thread of thought, she sank into a heavy silence, thinking.

"...Letaria. That machine kept up with your movements, didn't it?"

"Yes. It felt as though it saw my movements and responded to them immediately."

Still staring at the monitor, Milea knit her brows sternly.

"Sergeant Adelina's Radure can move the same way. But in her case, it only works because everything combines: a dedicated cockpit optimized to the limit for her machine, a pressure-resistant pilot suit, and above all her own outstanding ability and fighting style."

It was no exception like Adelina. Which meant--

"Including the Arden-wannabe machine Grain fought, none of those machines looks to me as though it was adjusted with the pilot's burden in mind. Normally... a human body shouldn't be able to withstand that load."

The concept was a very close match for "the Arden of the early days."

And so a possibility naturally came to mind. Yes -- the thought that they might be beings who had drifted in from another world, like Letaria, flashed through her mind for an instant. But a case like hers was the product of astronomical odds, for which even the word "coincidence" was far too mild. She could not believe that several people of the same kind had come tumbling in.

If so -- there was only one answer.

"..."

The words Milea murmured did not reach the ears of the dozing Letaria.

◆◆◆

Several dozen minutes later, Grain was in Milea's lab, a worn-out look on his face.

"Letaria seems to be sleeping soundly."

Grain quietly looked toward the sofa in the corner of the room. There, Letaria had fallen asleep again, breathing softly.

"She woke up once a while ago, but she fell asleep again after we talked for a bit."

Watching Letaria sleep peacefully, Milea let her mouth soften into a gentle smile.

"Good that she's getting proper rest. ...By the way."

Grain paused for a beat and dropped his voice low.

"Have you checked the combat logs yet?"

"Yes. Yours, and Letaria's -- I've reviewed all of them."

Hearing Milea's answer, Grain pulled up an empty chair, sat down, and took a sip of the coffee she handed him.

"What do you think?"

"I'd like to hear your view first, since you actually crossed blades with it."

At Milea's reply, Grain gave a wry smile. Looking at the battle record of Riese displayed on the holographic monitor in front of him -- the footage of the engagement with the green machine -- he spoke quietly.

"Well... the green one I fought had machine characteristics like the old Arden's. So the moment I saw that abnormal reaction speed, I thought for an instant, 'Is this a pilot of the same kind as Letaria?'"

Grain paused once, his gaze dropping as he thought it over deeply.

"But... it only 'looked that way.' It took Aland's surprise shot full on, and it couldn't dodge Steshia's last shot on its own, either. The real Letaria would never take a hit like that."

As Milea listened with a serious gaze, Grain continued.

"In other words, it has overwhelming reaction speed, but it's 'some other kind of being' that can endure that abnormal mobility and the G-load. Fundamentally different from Letaria, who has magic and a robust body."

Hearing that analysis, Milea nodded in deep agreement.

"I'm of exactly the same opinion. That Arden-like machine -- it was surely redesigned on the basis of the old Escado's Crafid. The machine frame itself is built with the latest technology, but the design philosophy underlying it is far too old."

"...So do you think something of the same kind as the Arden System or the Zodan system is built into it, too?"

At Grain's question, Milea crossed her arms and thought.

"It's more natural to assume a similar control system, or an imitation of one, exists in it. What was being tested at that neutral-zone facility was a repurposing of the old Escado's legacy. And... the pilots made to run those experiments while enduring that burden..."

"Are likely genuine 'enhanced humans' -- or people who've undergone treatment of that kind."

At the words Grain spoke so heavily, Milea nodded quietly, but with a rigid expression.