8 - Appreciation x Abruptness

“Goodness sake, it’s fine while you’re young, but you’ll have a hard time keeping that up in the future,” says the instructor, Aloe Ira, as she sees Regina off with a wry smile.

Then, she looks back at the hangar.

There, the maintenance teams shout as their pilots prepare to sortie.

You can’t see the Pilot Department students now that they’ve boarded, but they can be heard from the sounds of their voices.

They’re having trouble completing their pre-sortie checklists.

During their first live machine training with an instructor here at Schola Sanctus, this is generally what happens.

Although there are sharp students like Regina among them.

(I wonder how many of them will remain…) Aloe thinks.

Although it is a school, this is ultimately a place to train soldiers.

The same goes for classroom lectures, but the classes also include shooting practice, physical training, etc., and as the curriculum progresses, elements to show the reality of the battlefield will naturally appear.

Many students enter the school every year, then some of them cannot keep up with classroom lectures, and some make mistakes during training and get hurt. If that happens, a certain number of students will drop out of Schola Sanctus out of fear of continued incompetence or injury.

And some of them can’t accept the brutal realities of the battlefield and develop traumatic disorders.

(At the very least, I have no choice but just pray that most of them will remain, which is frustrating,) Aloe thought.

She is also a graduate of this school and has defeated many enemies on the battlefield with her Stella Corpus.

However, an enemy shot her down on a certain battlefield, and her injuries were so serious she was deemed no longer fit for combat and was assigned to a rear detachment.

After that, Aloe was invited to work as an instructor here, and now she’s hammering piloting skills into the young students.

(All I can do to ready them is treat them harshly,) Aloe thought.

And once the checks were finally over, one unit after another came out of their cages, but they were struggling so hard with just moving that they had no awareness of their surroundings.

There were many sights where machines got too close to each other and the automated controls braked before a collision happened.

“Calm down,” Aloe said, smiling wryly. “Let’s start with the lowest number—huh?!”

In the midst of sorting out the traffic jam that’s become something of an annual event, Aloe heard a sound she should not have.

When she turned around, the bulkhead to the training ground was closing.

“Attention all personnel!” Aloe yelled at the students leaning out of their cages and jostling around. “Halt immediately! Pilots disembark, maintenance crews, lock down all cages and units! Hurry up!”

Yet, as she whipped around and looked at the bulkhead, it only continued closing.

(–No! We can’t make it in time!) Aloe thought.

She immediately calculated the speed that the bulkhead was closing and the time she needed to get a unit up and running, and quickly realized the latter was overwhelmingly insufficient.

“Glawis!” Aloe yelled. “Stop your machine, emergency evacuation, now! Get out of there!”

[Huh?!] Regina cried.

“Get the hell out of there! This is an emergency!” Aloe yelled.

It’s impossible for the bulkhead to close during class, especially when the units were just about to exit the hangar.

Aloe doesn’t know why. However, she’s certain something is wrong as the impossible happens.

Her experience as a soldier made her orders prioritize the safety of her students.

It doesn’t matter if it’s bad luck; if Aloe was just being paranoid, then so be it.

[…… Roger that,] Regina said. [Evacu–! ?]

“Glawis!?” Aloe yelled.

Just before the bulkhead closed, she heard a gasp, followed by a gunshot, then an explosion over the comms, with a cloud of dust rushing in from the small gap left between the bulkhead and the floor.

And as soon as the bulkhead fully closed, all communication with Regina was lost.

“What’s going on!?” Regina yelled. “Control Room!”

The control room is in charge of the training ground’s integrated controls.

These could manipulate the training ground’s environment, operate the bulkheads, and even remotely control the Stella Corpuses.

Alongside the Pilot Department’s practical training and the students of the Maintenance Department assisting them, Operator Department’s students are also training in the control room.

If the bulkhead closes on its own, there is no cause but a malfunction due to a system failure or someone entering the command from the control room.

Furthermore, this class is only about operating a live Stella Corpus, there was no permission to use weapons.

It should have been impossible to hear gunfire.

Once Aloe tried calling the control, the instructor there answered after a few moments—

Or, it was supposed to be that way.

[Yo-ho, how are you today in this crappy class!? Kyahahahahaha…!]

The one who answered Aloe’s call was a rotten student keen on mocking everyone.

“Bastard… what are you doing there!?” Aloe yelled.

[Can’t figure it out, hu~h? You stupid or something?]

Even with Aloe Ira’s anger-filled voice, the students on the other side of the screen insulted her without even bothering to hide their derision.

[Come on, hurry up and get the video up. Or do you want me to kill you~?]

[Hii, st-stop.]

[Then get on with it, ugly bitch!]

Even though Aloe can’t see the girl on the screen, that must have been one of the Operator Department students standing nearby.

The student Aloe can see holds a heat-ray gun in their hands and points the muzzle at the operator student to intimidate her.

[If you don’t do it… you know what’s going to happen right, little girly?]

[Huh? I don’t know.]

A blue vein appears on Aloe’s forehead, and the notebook she’s using emits a loud rustling sound.

[You think it’s okay to talk to us like that? What, you want me to use this?]

Another voice is heard, and the student on the screen shows the heat gun again.

All Aloe could do was grit her teeth and keep quiet.

[Right, that’s it! Shut the fuck up, okay, dumb~ass?]

[Come on, get us live already.]

[O-Okay…]

[Kyahahahahaha! That’s the ticket!]

With that harsh laughter, The hangar’s holo-monitor forcibly deployed and projected the scene on the training ground.

“GLAWIS!” Aloe screamed.

Regina’s unit was being chased down by four other Centurias.