CH 164

「Hou ho! Thank you thank you, you must have worked hard! And so! Now that the audition is over, I want you two to try out the movements when you’re fighting on the Flygears. How about it?」 「I don’t mind. I’m always up for a battle.」 「Me, I want to save the serious fight for last… it’s tiring.」 「Yes, this is a scripted scene, so it’s all right. The one that isn’t scripted is the last battle that you two will do in the last act.」

It was a bit disappointing for Inglis, but it wasn’t that bad once she thought of it as a warm-up exercise.

「Understood then.」

Yua promptly stood up and nimbly jumped onto Lahti’s Flygear that was hovering quite close to the ceilings. To be more precise, her appearance suddenly distorted midway as she abruptly appeared right next to Lahti.

「OOH?! Wh-, when did you?! Your body suddenly disappeared?!」 「Nn. Thanks for bringing it here. Now jump off.」 「It’s freaking high! How the hell do I jump off from here?!」 「? You got weak body?」

Yua looked puzzled.

「No, no, I’m a Squire student! I don’t got an Artifact!」 「? Me too, though?」 「…………」

Lahti couldn’t even make a comeback.

「No, it’s fine like that. We’ll have the pilots steer during the play too; I’m thinking that we’ll put in some actions where you girls will be hopping on each others’ Flygears! Like, vwoom, vwoom!」

Count Weissmall showed them the movements in his head with exaggerated gestures.

「And so, you! Can you become Yua’s pilot?」 「Roger that! Just leave it to me!」

Lahti’s skill in piloting Flygear was second to none in the Academy. He was the right man for the job.

「Ermm…that means Inglis will be riding with me? I don’t think I can keep up with Lahti’s steering, you know.」

It was Pullum, a student of the Knight division from the same grade as Inglis. She had come with Lahti to bring in a Flygear. Mainly, only first and second-year students would be assisting the Weissmall Troupe on the stage, while Silva and the other third-year students would be concentrating on rebuilding the Academy.

「It’s okay, Pullum! Glis will be riding this one!」

Rafinha’s voice was heard from overhead. She was already in the Star Princess unit. She’s fast.

「……We’re using it, after all?」

I’d rather use a regular Flygear. Definitely.

「We are! We must!」 「Hou hou. By all means, please do use it! I do think it’s very effeminate and lovely.」 「However, Count Weissmall, I think it will be compared a lot with senior Yua’s Flygear.」 「It’s okay. No problem there.」 「Why is that, senior?」 「We can just paint this one too! We’ll make it cute.」 「Agreed! We’ll help, senior Yua! Right, Pullum?」 「Yes! We’ll paint another one, right!」

The two perpetrators behind the Star Princess unit gleamed their eyes.

「I don’t care if the Principal gets mad, okay?!」

Saying so, Inglis also kicked off the ground and leaped high, spun around in the air and landed onto the Star Princess unit. The dancer’s costume and the hair ribbon that Rafinha had finished swayed along graciously as though they danced in the air.

「Hoho! Inglis really looks picturesque whatever she does! I am awestruck with just that motion alone.」

Count Weissmall nodded in satisfaction.

「Thank you very much.」

He might look eccentric, but Inglis didn’t sense anything evil in his words or action, so she could take his words at face value.

「Indeed! Inglis, you are so adorable, and the Star Princess unit fits perfectly with you!」 「Yeah yeah! I, the person who knows Glis best, am the one who designed it after all, so it’s only natural!」 「No, I think there are some values we still don’t see eye to eye, you know…」

Mainly about the appearance of the Star Princess unit, though,

「And so, I’ll have you all fly over the audience seat as if you’re trying to keep in check on each other’s neck!」

Ordered the Count.

「Okay! You guys good there? Senior Yua too, you good?」 「Yup. I’m in your care.」 「We’re good! Let’s-a go!」

The two Flygears began to move at the same time. Keeping an even distance between them, the two vehicles drew an arc trajectory over the theatre with their bows facing each other, as the people on them were glaring at one another.

「Doing this is just too plain, it ain’t making a good show! Let’s make it flashy! Follow me!」

Lahti started to show off even more complex Flygear maneuvers. In such a limited space, it managed to make a vertical loop and even drew complicated flight trajectories that looked like tidal waves. The fact that he did it indoors made the scene even more impactful.

「Kuuh!! You’re good! Even though the Star Princess has a better overall performance!」

Lahti’s skills were so impressive that Rafinha could only voice her impression. However, so far, it was nothing more than just two Flygears flying around. The scene had to be even more intense by mixing in hand-to-hand combat.

「Senior Yua! Let’s jump out of Flygears and try out aerial combat moves!」 「Let’s——hup」

Yua leaped to the air as if it was nothing to her. She did it as casually as getting off a chair.

「Hyaat!!」

Inglis also jumped out in pursuit of Yua. Up in the air, the distance between them grew closer.

「Senior, use your fist! You can just make it look like you hit me!」 「Hoi!」

Boom! Kaboom! Boooomm!!

Their fists clashed with each other, and the sound of their blows reverberated off the walls and ceilings.

「After kicking, we use the shockwave to jump back and switch Flygears!」 「Nn.」

Ker-chaannkkk!

Inglis and Yua’s kicks crossed. The sound of the impact echoed again. The two of them used the recoil of their own clash to fly into their opposites’ Flygear and landed beautifully.

「Hoouhohou! What a tremendous impact! Marvelous!」 「This is going to be one hell of a show! It’ll be great!」 「Those movements are impossible for us! It’s really a godsend that the Knight Academy is lending their help!」

Count Weissmall and the actors of the troupe seemed to be satisfied. There was a spontaneous burst of applause from them.

「Hahaha……Being shown moves like that makes me feel inferior now.」 「That’s not true, your steering are superb, Lahti.」

As Inglis was saying so, she turned her attention to the Star Princess unit which Yua had boarded onto… only to find that there was a sorcerous light converging from the protruding muzzle of its bow.

「?!」

Yua was the one holding the control stick, and it seemed that the light was generated from her.

「EEHH……?! Wh-, what the hell?! Senior Yua, what’s that?!」 「Nope. No idea.」 「Get away, Lahti!」

PSHOOOOooooo!!

A high-speed sorcerous light was fired at the Flygear driven by Lahti.