according to Miss Isotani, all our classmates belong to different factions, so they can’t easily engage in casual conversation. In this context, I’m a bit different.
Although I’m under the care of the 2nd Division, I’m genuinely a civilian, so I’m free from the complicated constraints of faction politics. Moreover, since everyone in the upper echelons wants information about me, who suddenly appeared, no one would complain about her making small talk with me. In fact, she even gets praised by her parents just for chatting with me.
…I don’t know what kind of information she’s gathering from our conversations or what information she’s leaking, but it’s strange how her straightforwardness actually lowers my guard.
In reality, people in their position are probably competitors with each other.
I’ve heard they’re also strictly disciplined at home.
I can understand that it’s tiresome to always be on edge.
While I wish she’d tone down the information extraction a bit, I can’t bring myself to throw cold water on a girl who smiles and says, “I get praised by my father just for talking about you!”
I’ve decided to turn a blind eye to her leaking information about me. It would be troublesome if extremely sensitive information was leaked, but we’re only having normal small talk anyway. If she can extract information from that, I should just accept it as proof of her competence.
The fact that I was shown the flowers of the beautiful tree when we first met? That’s irrelevant. Absolutely.
As we casually became friends, I found her to be a very approachable type of person.
First of all, she basically doesn’t lie.
She’s probably aware that it doesn’t suit her personality.
Of course, she stays silent or deflects when it comes to topics that can’t be discussed casually, but that’s about it.
The reason she confronted me when we first met was to probe for information about me, whose identity was unknown. She was trying to figure out how to approach me based on my attitude.
Then, after the boss revealed my information during homeroom, she recognized that I was a civilian not belonging to any faction – in other words, someone to be protected as a warrior.
However, that only applied to me before entering the military academy. Now that I’ve enrolled, she’s decided to treat me as a fellow soldier, a colleague.
Honestly, I’m grateful that she’s willing to interact with an anomaly like me with this level of familiarity.
“It’s a standard type for the upper body and a beast type for the lower body, right? That’s undoubtedly a monstrosity.”
She’s also the type to speak her mind directly. Like just now.
“…I think it could become quite something if mastered.”
“Can you master it?”
The same question the mechanic old man – no, Mr. Mogami – asked me has now been thrown back at me.
“Well, I managed to achieve decent results in the simulator…”
I wasn’t sure about the difficulty level, and it was just a simulator after all, so I can’t say much.
“Huh? At least you weren’t shot down without even being able to start up, right? Were you able to take evasive action and attack?”
“Well, yeah.”
Surely it would be a stretch to call it a “decent performance” if you couldn’t do that much?
“Don’t look so puzzled. Most people wouldn’t even be able to start up such a weird machine, right? But you managed to start it up. Not only that, you were able to perform basic maneuvers like evasion and attacks. This is undoubtedly good information. Father will praise me again!”
“Ah, I see.”
Should I call her sharp, or am I just being slow?
(No, I’m just being slow.)
It should be obvious that information about a new model is rare and valuable, regardless of whether it’s usable or not.
However, the reason for being happy about obtaining this rare and valuable information being “because father will praise me” is somewhat… deflating, to say the least.
But I can’t let my guard down. After all, I’m a soldier, even if I’m still a student.
“Well then, I have training.”
“Oh, right. I’ll go too.”
(Leaking information about the machine would be bad, even if it’s just my personal information.)
Having made that judgment, I ended my conversation with Isotani-san and headed to the hangar where the “weird machine” and the pervert who created it were waiting.
✱✱✱
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Two days after that conversation. It was late April on the calendar, a time known to the general public as Golden Week.
Unlike the general public who need to keep the economy moving, soldiers who have been fighting demons for over 100 years since World War II don’t have such a custom of taking long vacations… Whether it’s late April or early May, the two-day weekend system is maintained regardless. Incidentally, in the past, it used to be a “Monday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Friday” situation, but the two-day weekend system was introduced because it was proven that lack of rest decreases work efficiency, and without days off, there’s no opportunity to spend money, meaning the economy doesn’t move.
How are you all doing these days?
I, Keita Kawakami, am currently at the seaside in Kitakyushu, far from Tokyo.
I know it’s sudden and you might not understand what’s going on. To be honest, I don’t quite understand it myself.
To briefly explain the situation: Yesterday, I was suddenly told by my boss-homeroom teacher, “You’re going to the Air Force base in Iruma tomorrow.” When I went to the Air Force base, some old maintenance guys were waiting for me. Before I knew it, I was put on a plane and arrived in Kyushu.
“Wait, why?!”
Even if you explain it, I don’t get it! I understand that in this day and age, we military cadets don’t have long vacations. Even if civilians have long vacations, we military cadets who are set to go to the battlefield after graduation don’t have such things. We can’t have them.
Even if we did, everyone would spend it training. Because if we don’t get used to the machines before going to the battlefield, we’ll die, and that’s no joke.
And it’s not just ourselves who die. We are officer candidates. We’ll be commissioned officers upon graduation. That means we’ll be platoon leaders or their assistants. When do people like us die? It goes without saying. When our entire unit is annihilated.
It’s one thing to die alone, but we’ll be responsible for the lives of our subordinates. If there’s someone who can enjoy a vacation while knowing this, they’re not mentally strong… They’re just socially maladjusted.
At least, that’s how the military would think. And the current military doesn’t have the luxury to train socially maladjusted people as officer candidates. In other words, anyone who tries to slack off saying it’s a long vacation or whatever will be quickly weeded out. In the first place, it’s unthinkable to skip classes while getting paid to attend school.
Well, apparently there are a certain number of students who try to skip classes that aren’t related to military matters, like physical education, war history research, tactics, strategy, and machine adjustment. Well, as long as they don’t fail the regular exams, they’re allowed to do so, which might be considered quite lenient in that sense.
The basic value seems to be something like “Training is more important than classes!”
It’s not unique to military schools… I think I’ve heard that it’s similar in private schools that focus on sports when students enter through sports scholarships.
With such a policy, it’s not necessarily required to show up at school just because it’s a weekday. It’s not required, but since rankings change based on regular exam results, and whether one’s classroom attitude is diligent or not affects internal evaluations, people usually don’t skip classes. Usually.
Given all that, however.
There are times in military school when skipping classes doesn’t lower your evaluation.
In the example of schools that focus on sports, it’s when you participate in tournaments or practice games with the official approval of your club. In such cases, it’s treated as an excused absence, so it’s not considered skipping.
Now, here’s a question.
Q: In a military school that trains soldiers, what situation corresponds to “going to tournaments or practice games”?
A: Going to the battlefield.
Yes. That’s how it is.
“That’s how it is, my foot! Why?!”
“What’s wrong all of a sudden?”
Hearing me suddenly raise my voice, Mogami-san gives me a puzzled look, but I’m the one who’s confused.
“No, no, no. Isn’t it strange for a fresh recruit to go to the battlefield?”
Certainly, the military school curriculum includes an item called “field training.” But that’s for third-year students, and only for those in Class A, or students in Class B who have been given their own machines. In other words, it’s for excellent students who are the cream of the crop among those who have studied at the military school for more than two years.
It’s definitely not something to be done by a problem child who’s only been enrolled for a month and is taking time to adjust due to being given a weird machine.
What on earth is the school thinking? While hiding my indignation and making an argument based on common sense, Mogami-san flashed a smile so bright you could almost hear it and gave me a thumbs up while saying:
“I just pushed through a bit of an unreasonable request.”
“So you’re the culprit!”
After finishing the simulator training on the first day. After going home and reporting about the machine to my sister and having her investigate various things, I found out that this old man wasn’t just a maintenance guy, but also the president of a company called Mogami Heavy Industries.
I hadn’t heard of this company before despite having researched the industry to some extent, but that makes sense. Until now, what Mogami Heavy Industries had been making were not machines, but tank tracks and heavy artillery. They were making weapons and parts used by machines. For some reason, they’ve now extended their reach into the machine manufacturing industry. It’s natural that I didn’t know about them since they’re new to the field.
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