Magic Robot Aluminare

“Today, to those who can come to this place,first of all congratulations. But do not be merry. Those that are sitting next to you are rivals with whom you’ll compete for the few seats”

Academy’s pilot training department. Sitting in that row, While listening to the grateful words of the school president, I was stiffling a yawn.Dressed in the Academy ‘s uniform. Regarding the aluminare’s squad pure white uniform.The Academy’s clothes are different in color. It is a gray school uniform.
Although I heard it when I got the uniform, as the Academy’s student are still unpolished jewels lacking in shine, its color is dull. Polish up,it’s only when you become shining will you be allowed to wear that pure-white uniform.
When I asked that way, I came to deeply think about this uniform’s color.

“—-Well then, I expect a good fight from ladies and gentlemen.”[not sure about how to phrase it ]

Finally the school president’s speech ended. If you look at the schedule, with this, the greeting association should end. After, we were divided into departments and today’s schedule ends with a recreation.
And, I heard a sigh from my side. Among the other students that are seriously listening to the school president’s speech, this sigh has a very favorable impression.
If I were to secretly peek there, the woman with such pitch black hair that could suck you in, glares at me as if I am her parent’s enemy, I looked upward[to avoid her glare]. Also the time with the maid Setta-san[tn: isn’t it supposed to be Sette-san?] but black hair is still good. It stimulates my previous life.
And, whether or not she noticed my gaze, she looks this way. Those pupils contrary to expectations were red. It’s a different world after all.

“What?”
“Oh, no. Sorry, nothing. It’s just that I heard a sigh”
“Was that so? I apologize”

Oh, she’s suprisingly courteous.
The degree of favourable impression is increasing.

“Don’t worry about it. I strangely can’t stand those around me that are seriously listening. I find that someone like you possess a favourable impression”
“Really”

She doesn’t feel like having any more talk, the woman once again returned her gaze upward.
Apparently, it seems she’s not willing to make friends. Well, from now on, we’ll be rival, is it normal?.

“So, this is the end of the entrance ceremony. After this, please move in accordance with the instructions of your respective department’s teacher.”

In accordance with the voice of the moderator, the surrouding teachers stood up and started guiding.

“Those who are majoring in pilot over here! Follow me without hesitation!”

A handsome body builded man was waving his hand from the auditorium’s entrance,he resembled captain Baudouin. The students who were around me, gathered as they headed there. I also went down toward the man following that flow.

“Good, As we’re going to the classroom don’t get separeted[or drift away]. When you’re separated you’ll be stranded.”

Since it is not an uncommon mishap, I’m troubled.
The Academy’s building is surrounded by the outer wall and the school buildings in an elliptical pattern. With the seven-storey school buildings, the number of classrooms is well over a thousand.
over there, because classrooms from various department are assembled, the labyrinthine space expandes.
The teacher first advances in the hallway. Climbing up to the seventh floor and proceed further into the hallway, we arrive at the end of thehallway.the Wall at the end of the hallway seems to be part of the outer wall.

“Good, your classroom’s here. It’s the easiest to remember because it’s the most distant location”
“Wh… Why so far away!”

One of the students raise his voice. It would be everyone’s opinion.

“If you aim to become a pilot,it’s because it’s necessary to have a foundation of endurence. In order to train on a regular basis, the pilot’s classroom has been established the furthest. By the way, there’s a special classroom that require movement on the opposite side first floor. We’ll have to run or we won’t make it in time”

Monsters exist …

“quickly enter the classroom. Seats are free.”

THe classroom has of about two classrooms from my previous world, you can say that it has the size of asmall conference room. Over there, All the students whose ambition is to be a pilot were settled. In other words, they is about 50 of them.
I appropriately sit on anavailable seat. Next to me, a woman came along while fommowing the flow.

“Everybody has his seat. Good, I’ll be your homeroom teacher during this one year, I’m Gasoul Orthega. I was an aluminare’s pilot but due to an injury I came down from the machine and now I put effort into leading my juniors. Other than me, the other teacher are also former aluminare pilot. So, if there’s something you don’t understand quickly ask me. And then, here’s a little advice”

THe expression of professor Gasoul that smilled as he talked, turns serious.

“Perhaps all of you enterred into this department aiming to become an aluminare pilot, right? But, next year, The students from this very same classroom are going to be less than a third”

At that phrase, the tension among the students in the classroom runs high.

“And, probably less then 5 people can graduate. Can you tell the reason?”

It is natural. If you include all the currently operating aluminare inside the kingdom, it totals 32, ah no, with the machine I brought in that makes it 33.
There’s no way to assign to the yearly new pilot all of those machines. Every year, a new pilot is assigned to an aluminare’s squad as an aid for the real pilot, experiencing combat, and after a few years can he pilot an aluminareas a regular pilot.
So, even if, every year, 10 people or 20 people graduated as a pilot, is there no future assignment.
Seven people successfully graduated from the pilot’s department. Among them, only two of them have been assigned to an aluminare’s squad as a reserve pilot.
Even the five people told by professor gasoul, if you look at the annual data there are many of them.

“It’s good if you understand the reason. Today, from this day on, your relationship will not be as simple as rivals. THe one next to you is your enemy. Naturally, they’ll be the wall preventing you from grasping your future. Always closely observe your enemy’s tendency, do not allow your enemy to getahead of you. And, Do not neglect your daily effort and go one step further than those around you. That’s all I want to say. After this, you’ll have your first ability test [or ability examination]. Change into your sport clothes and gather at the ground. Since the locker room is near the entrance of the ground, you’ll change your clothes there.”

Leaving those words, professor Gasoul goes out of the classroom.
As we remainnde, at first we glanced at one another not knowing we could do but we gradually started to move and left the classroom according to our own judgment. I also got up from my seat and headed to the locker room.

I change into my sport clothes I received before entering the school and go to the ground.
And there is a plain covered by a huge dome-shaped roof. Furthermore, on the corner of my view spread a forest. As for the ceiling’s dome, it’s made with both glass and wood so the sunligth is clearly perceived.
As the students from our pilot departments were forming little groups in every direction, I was doing some warm-up exercises alone as I waited for the professor to arrive.
Over there, professor Gasoul comes accompagnied by several teachers.

“Good, gather around me. Don’t especially worry about the shape.”

We gather around the professor according to his instruction. Coincidentally, that black-haired woman stood again right next to me… Is it a coincidence?

“Like I said earlier, what we’re examinating are your basic physical endurence, your sword’s technique and your magic. the written test about aluminare will occur in the afternoon so don’t worry.”

out of nowhere, a strained laugh escape.

“First, it’s the physical endurence test. What you have to do is simple, you ‘ll have to run following me. Your score is determined by how far can you follow along. We’ll depart in 5 minutes, Finish your warm-ups by then”

Just after announcing that, the professor Gasoul starts his own warm-up exercice. As I look at the other professors stretching up their bodies, I wonder if they’re going to determine our score from behind while running after us. I too, in order to do my warm-up exercice I separate from the place we are gathered. At exactly 5 minutes, we are once again called to assemble, the test for basic endurence started.

With professor Gasoul ahead, all the pilot department student started to run on the prairie.
Since everyone here is aiming to become pilot, for about the first twenty minutes of running on the prairie following professor Gasoul no one was dropping out.
But, it’ll soon be time for drop-outs to drop out [is it a pun? if so,intended].
I think so while looking at the state of the ground.
After all there isn’t any paved road in here, it’s a fierce prairie with grown weeds. There are also places with holes due to aluminare’s steps.

This rough road should easily answer to people that want to train their muscles jut by running. There’s already one person.
Because I was running a little in the back, I immediately noticed the drop-out.
From the group, he is little by little relegated to the rear, he comes down right in front of me.
His breath rising, shaky steps. Didn’t this even seem pretty reckless? Also he has an amazing amout of sweat.
It is better for him to immediately stop.
It’s not a good idea to force one-self to run some more. As I concluded thus, I lightly raise my speed and overtake the boy with an expression of composure.
The expression of the male student as I overtook him was painted with despair. And just like that he stopped his feet. Then, one of the instructors who was running at the end of the line approaches, hit his shoulder whisper something or other to the student. The student collapsed on the spot and bursted into tears.

“Well, as a result of that, work hard next year.”

The slow student is completely eliminated. Although it’s not a failure, but in term of results it’s the worst. We were confronted with quite a harsh reality right out of the gate. Well, I do not intend to fail, though.
Furthermore, we run for about five minutes, two more dropped-out. It is due to the professor increasing his speed.
Furthermore, the number of drop-outs increases at intervals of 10,20 minutes.
Now that we kept running for an hour, less than ten people were left. They also, likewise they also desperately cling to the speed of the professor while sweat is dripping from their forehead.
It’s mentally quite hard for me too . I intended to train by hunting, but to become a pilot
I still seem naive.

“Fu fu fu”

While I systematically breathe, I keep running for 30 minutes more in a way that conserve my pace. when six people remained, the professor dropped his speed.

“Good, the basic physical endurence test is over. The present remaining members receive a perfect score.”
“Ho… Hoorray! I did it!”
“Ah”
“It… It ended…”
“Phew … Phew …”

Those who take the guts pose, those who breathe with hands on their knees, those  limply falling on the spot respectively show their joy.
In it, were me and the aforementioned woman too.
I recover my breath while I slowly walk in the professor’s vicinity. For this woman to follow me up to here, she seems to have considerable training.

“The Break is 20 minutes. After that, we’ll move to the sword technique test, understood everyone”

If you look well, there are also those that dropped out on the way in the surroundings. Apparently, they came back to the starting place while we were running.
those that dropped out midway, this time have earned better grades and enthusiasm, those that remained to the end are desperately trying to recover even a bit of their strength while recovering their breath.
I also strive to recover my physical strength as I sit down on the ground.

“You, you’re pretty capable”

the previous woman came to talk to me.

“Likewise[or You too]. You do not seem that tired.”

Although her sweat is draining, but she doesn’t appear to be as badly out of breath as those around. It looks like she can still go on.

“This much is natural. My resolution is different from such lot. Moreover, you also seem to still have some energy(?)”
“In what way? It might unexpectedly be a pretended endurence”
“It’s enough to be able to talk to that extent”
“It’s Eldo”
“Huh?”
“My name.  Honestly, when we gathered at the beginning of the classroom, I didn’t consider that there wouldn’t be any time for self-introduction though”
“Oh, Come to think of it, it was indeed the case. Layla. because we were told that everyone are enemies so I did not care.”

Indeed, the professor did say everyone is our rival at the beginning. That’s why, quitea lot of the other students are running solo without any self-introduction. But for me, I think it’s a bad move.

“It may be better if we made a few comrades.”
“What do you mean?”
“Apparently, it also appears to me that they’re inducing us to divide into parts. Perhaps, the probability of also acting as a pair or a group isn’t it zero? Shouldn’t any disavantage in gathering members that we can more or less trust”

After all, an aluminare’s squad is made of five people at a minimum, but there are numerous cases of groups of more than 10 members. I hardly think that a guy that can’t be in group action can pass the exam.
If you don’t firmly put the distinction between allies and enemies, you will not survive this competition.

“There’s one principle, I wonder if it’s all right to move in pair?”
“Oh, when we’ll have three people under us, a pair becomes a group. If we’re going to invite, wouldn’t it be those that are already paired?”[I’m not sure about the second sentence]
“If so, Let’s move as a pair for a while . But I do not misunderstand, it’s in order to get good results”
“Oh, of course. Thanks”

Taking the hand outstreched by Layla, I stand up.
At the same time, the sword skill test has been started.

Let’s start from the conclusion. I have no sword talent!
No, because. In the first place there’s no reason to use a sword in a hunt. At best, I wield for processing the prey followed by the bow and magic.
So, I’ve never done any sword training so far.
Yeah, I got defeated in an instant.
As for the trial, having an weapon that we can use from the various weapon, we fight with the professor in turns, but I got finished without being able to do anything. As it was my first time holding a middle sword, I take a stance without any style [Think no basic stance or fighting style], If I imitate what I’ve seen I’ll gain one blow. Maybe, wouldn’t it be more dangerous if I keep swinging the sword some more?.
What do I do without using it with magic…
And, the one who took the top grade is Layla who superbly made the professor surrender. She made the professor’s sword fly away in one blow, put the blade on his neck this isn’t the skill of an amateur. How many years of pratice would it take to be able to do that…
Well, the other also seems to master about the basic of sword technique and are able to firmly exchange blows with the professor! Only me, got defeated in one blow!
Well, if you do aim to become a knight, it may be natural to at least train your sword technique. If you are a noble and other such things, it would at least be taught by your parents.
There’s no way I’d fail at this point.
But the next test’s magic.
Magic is my specialty. Here I’ll recover in one stretch and boost my score somewhat.
Once more, I psyche myself up to recover, I was going to challenge the next test.