Chapter 83 – Hehehe, Leave It to Me! I Shall Satisfy You Completely!

"If live data from the actual machine isn't possible, so be it. But we've come all this way -- I'd like to see what the simulator shows. Which brings me to a thought: what about a simulated bout?"

Sean brought his hands together with the air of someone who has just arrived at a fine idea.

This development was within the range of what Milea had anticipated from the start. If the real machine couldn't be activated, the natural next step for a sharp technical mind was surrogate combat data gathered under controlled conditions.

"Of course... In that case, shall the Arden data we input into the simulator use the previous configuration -- the Claphid-based version from the period when the Grave Arc was deployed?"

"Yes, naturally. The current special unit project components would introduce different variables."

Sean nodded, satisfied, and shifted his gaze to the young woman at his side.

"Letaria-san, if you would?"

"Of course I would! A simulated contest is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate my splendid capabilities!"

Letaria squared her shoulders with brisk confidence and enthusiasm. Steve, watching her, smiled with what was clearly warm appreciation -- but Milea's stomach, which had been quietly aching since this visit began, tightened another notch. Even in a simulator, allowing Letaria to operate Arden under the sharp observational eyes of another branch's staff was nerve-wracking from a containment standpoint.

"As for the opponent for this exercise..."

At Sean's prompting look, the blue-haired young woman -- Ritte -- stepped quietly forward.

"I'll take that role."

She fixed Letaria with an unreadable gaze and bowed precisely.

"I look forward to it, Letaria-san."

"And I as well, Ritte-san!"

With that settled, the group left the dock and made their way to the state-of-the-art simulator suite within Syn-Fibra's own facility.

The room they were shown into was in a different class entirely from the standard simulators at the Seldia vigilante corps training facility -- the difference was not small. Indicator panels covered every wall in orderly arrays. The sealed cockpit capsules were capable of measuring brainwave data. Most significantly, this was a top-grade facility where certain experimental data on unreleased machines and armaments currently in development at Syn-Fibra's main office could be incorporated -- with restrictions, and partially -- into the simulation environment.

"Letaria-san. Please -- show me your true ability."

Just before she stepped into her capsule, Ritte stopped and turned, speaking quietly but with absolute clarity.

Ritte had come here with a driving need: to understand the unknown pilot who had drawn performance from the Grave Arc that exceeded every known limit of that weapon.

However -- the full weight of that intent did not appear to reach Letaria with any particular precision.

"Hehehe, leave it to me! I shall satisfy you completely!"

The gap between the earnest, searching technician and the cheerful noble presenting herself for an exhibition -- Milea pressed her fingers to her forehead behind them. The miscommunication between a completely serious researcher and an almost magnificently oblivious young lady's effortless self-regard was, Milea found, somehow equal parts exasperating and genuinely funny.

The two settled into their respective capsules, and the system's startup hum began filling the room.

Watching the vast simulated training space take shape on the main monitor, Steve stroked his chin with absorbed interest.

"I've reviewed the combat footage from records any number of times, but seeing her operate in person -- even in a simulator -- will be a first for me. Genuinely intriguing."

"Oh, is that so?"

Sean raised his eyebrows slightly.

"You seemed to be meeting her for the first time earlier as well. Has she really been so separate from Syn-Fibra's side of things -- is she purely the corps' hidden asset?"

His gaze moved to Milea, measuring.

The truth: Milea and Steve had been quietly placing access restrictions on Letaria's anomalous magic-related data for some time, ensuring it never reached the main office's detection. The "first time meeting" was a direct consequence of that systematic concealment.

"No, it's not quite that... She is something of a singular personality, and I have found that surrounding her with too many people at once can interfere with data collection at the lab..."

Milea answered with a helpless, somewhat evasive smile that let nothing through.

While the adults played their careful game around her, the simulator's countdown began sounding through the room. In the virtual space, the restored original Arden and Ritte's custom machine faced each other across the void, still and quiet.

◆

The simulator achieved full sync, and what appeared on the main monitor was a vast hemispherical virtual environment -- its ceiling, floor, and walls all rendered in a pale grid of gray. No obstacles. No cover. A sterile testing ground designed purely to measure raw machine performance and pilot skill against each other with nothing in between.

"Beginning."

Ritte's voice came through the comm line -- composed, and sharp.

At the far edge of the virtual space, the machine she piloted erupted with a burst of blue-white thruster light. Her unit was a Luzam -- Syn-Fibra's current flagship military model -- heavily tuned by the Perda branch's team for test use. It outperformed the civilian general-use Rude across every metric, and its potential was genuinely comparable to the next-generation general model Rasta currently in development.

Across from it: the old Arden, restored to its configuration from the time the Grave Arc had been deployed.

"The goal is simply to defeat her -- yes?"

From the cockpit capsule came Letaria's magnificently direct question. Milea instinctively brought a hand to her forehead. The purpose of the simulated bout was data measurement and behavioral analysis -- specifically, trying to understand the mechanism behind the anomalous output spike. But Sean, standing at the control desk, found Letaria's approach more amusing than anything else.

"Hahaha! That will do perfectly, Letaria-san. Go at her with everything you have."

"Understood! No holding back, then!"

At Letaria's clear, resolute voice, Arden's drive systems raised their pitch. Certain elements of the machine's status display shifted to vivid amber on the monitor. Sean made a sound of impressed surprise.

"-- Well! She's actually activated Trace Mode. I've read about it in reports many times, but seeing it engaged as a live combat process -- it does rather command your attention."

Trace Mode. The system was, in its original design intent, an assistive safety framework for beginners just starting to learn Makina operation, or for automating limited basic movements like walking. Because the machine mirrored the pilot's own physical movements directly, the constraints were significant -- even tiny tremors in the body registered, the safety systems triggered constantly, G-force loads became severe. In combat, it was considered completely unusable.

Both Sean and Ritte had been briefed on the fact that this anomalous Seldia pilot used Trace Mode in combat. But watching it being engaged for high-speed fighting directly in front of them was something else -- to the engineers' eyes, it was as strange as it was, in its own way, strangely impressive.

"...She truly is singular."

With Ritte's murmur, the Luzam showed its military-grade acceleration.

A clean, smooth arc -- closing the distance by sweeping around toward Arden's blind spot. The kind of precise, predatory trajectory that only military hardware produced. The Luzam's sensors locked Arden completely, still and motionless.

"You're fast...! -- But this feeling...!"

Arden moved to meet the approach. But the motion was not the supernatural sharpness that had characterized the battle with Restful. Something was slightly behind -- a fraction of a beat, an almost imperceptible loss of edge.

Watching the behavioral log on her monitor, Milea understood the cause in an instant.

(-- Of course. Her body has adjusted to the hyper-responsive feel of the new Arden with its Letariem components...)

Over the past several days, Letaria had been running test flights in the dramatically upgraded new Arden with its pre-prototype Letariem parts installed -- a machine whose responsiveness was simply not comparable to the original. But what the simulator was running right now was the rolled-back old Arden, set deliberately to match Sean's specifications. Moving with the reflexes calibrated for the newer machine produced a mismatch, and the mismatch showed.

Ritte's Luzam did not miss the opening. Its right arm raised a virtual solid blade and drove a sharp arc directly at Arden's armor.

"Odd feeling -- but I'll adjust at once!"

Trace Mode transmitted the full momentum of Letaria's physical movement into the machine's frame.

The Arden that had appeared, until a moment ago, to be one beat behind -- moved.

The Luzam, having swept around to a rear position that should have been a complete advantage, found the sensor image of Arden performing an unnatural high-speed reversal that made no sense at that power output.

Arden slipped the incoming blade by the absolute minimum margin, and in the instant of gap that opened -- drove its bare right fist straight forward.

"...It's fast--!? That output is Claphid spec, a movement like that shouldn't be--"

Ritte's words did not finish.

Arden's fist struck the Luzam's chest armor dead-on, with full force.