Chapter 69 – No, Winning Is All That Matters!

The simulator hatches opened simultaneously, and two pilots emerged.

Ethan was composed to an almost startling degree -- not a single disruption to his breathing, not a trace of fatigue anywhere about him. Letaria, in stark contrast, was soaked through with sweat, her ponytail clinging damply against her neck.

Even so, her eyes blazed with the radiance of victory.

"Hehe, heheheheh...! Did you see that?! I have formally defeated Ethan-sama himself! Which means I am, in name and in fact, Seldia's absolute stro--"

"Hold on, my lady! That weapon you used at the end -- that was a present from Dr. Ichinose, wasn't it!? Isn't that a little unfair!?"

One corps member's voice cut right across her triumphant declaration. The members who had wagered their dessert on Ethan erupted at once in collective objection.

"What are you saying?! That is the blade Milea entrusted to Arden -- my blade!"

"But it was a secret weapon the doctor went to another department to acquire specifically, wasn't it? Even if it's the thing that destroyed Restful, using it without any warning is going a bit far!"

"No -- winning is all that matters!"

Letaria protested with full conviction, but the training facility had already erupted into uproar; the room split into a pro-Letaria camp and an invalidation camp, and heated argument flew in all directions.

"Letaria-san won through her own strength! Her evasion alone was incredible!"

Steshia put the full force of her support behind Letaria, and Herta piled on in agreement.

"Right! When you've got it, use it! Being a sore loser is so uncool, Rajel-senpai!"

"Shut it, Herta! A blade with that kind of output is a clear foul call!"

Rajel shot back, and Aland added from the sidelines: "That's the truth -- if not for that, the Sergeant Major would have managed it!"

The dispute was building to fever pitch when, abruptly, the principal himself -- Ethan -- spoke.

"-- No. Making full use of your equipped armament is proper conduct for a pilot. I lost. She won."

With the verdict delivered directly by the corps' top talent, Rajel and the others had no choice but to fall quiet. "If Sergeant Major says so..."

Herta wasted no time pressing the advantage.

"See?! Rajel-senpai, your prediction was wrong AND you made excuses -- genuinely pathetic!"

"Watch yourself! You keep that up and I'll pound you flat in the next sparring match!"

Rajel's indignant retort, and Herta's cheerful, mocking laughter.

In the midst of all that noise, Steshia suddenly remembered something and straightened up with pleased pride, her voice ringing out over the din.

"Oh, speaking of presents! I was told that a brand-new machine is coming for me soon! My hidden talents have finally been recognized -- by Syn-Fibra, by Dr. Ichinose, and by the Captain himself~!"

The room went dead silent for one instant -- and the next second it erupted. "What?!" "Why Steshia?!" "The rest of us are still stuck on Rudes!" Fresh argument broke out, louder than before.

(... I had better not say anything.)

Letaria kept the thought quietly to herself. She knew the truth -- Milea had told her that a single prototype of the next-generation general model Rasta was being assigned to the corps, and that it was being entrusted to Steshia precisely because she was a "thoroughly average and ordinary" pilot, the most useful possible source for practical operational data.

Ethan, equally privy to the real story, caught Letaria's eye with a helpless, wry smile. The two of them watched -- the clamoring corps members around them, and Steshia in the middle of it all, reveling in her good fortune without the faintest idea of the reason behind it -- with expressions that were, all in all, rather warm.

◆◆◆

"Ahhh... that feels much better."

The comfortable sweat she had worked up in the simulator now washed away, Letaria sat on the edge of her bed.

Changed from her casual outfit into loose room clothes, she half-watched the local Seldia news glowing softly on the holographic display in front of her.

In the live feed from the residential sector, fine threads of rain were falling through low, heavy cloud. Rain today. For the interior of a dome kept by artificial weather systems, it was a comparatively uncommon occurrence.

In a managed artificial environment, uncomfortable days of rain or strong winds were rarely scheduled. But there was a school of thought that incorporating occasional poor weather deliberately -- introducing the feeling of seasonal change, a rhythm of living, and by extension a foundation for genuine mental well-being. Milea had once explained this in quite technical terms.

Letaria, who had initially reacted to the very concept with "Humans controlling the weather -- what an act of divine defiance," had by now entirely accepted it as simply how this world worked.

With the news murmuring as background sound, a small smile curled at her lips.

"Hehe. I wonder how Grain will react when I tell him I beat Ethan-sama. I am already rather looking forward to it."

That earnest captain had a remarkably poor record against Ethan. If she reported this to him with self-satisfied pride, he would certainly be lying in his hospital bed wearing an expression of frustrated, sulky amusement. She was pleasantly plotting this small cruelty when, quite out of nowhere, the doorbell from the room's entrance chimed.

"My, who could that be? At this hour..."

She rose from the bed and crossed to the door, mildly puzzled. When she opened it, she found Milea standing outside -- unusually, not in her white coat, but in civilian clothes.

"May I have a moment?"

Where Milea would normally summon her to the lab with brisk, unapologetic authority -- at least, that was always how it seemed to Letaria -- she was now, quite uncharacteristically, a little hesitant, her gaze drifting sideways as she spoke.

"My, Milea. For you to come to my room yourself -- that is quite unusual."

Letaria smiled, mildly surprised and yet, somehow, rather pleased, and welcomed her guest inside.